The Experiment
by Richard Ryley
Summary: A kind Grey Wolf finds himself bought by a cruel Rancher. He befriends a Pixie/Henger, a fellow outcast shunned by the other monsters. But his new friend is an experiment, a forced Combination that has never succeeded before.
1. Childhood

This story is based on the Monster Rancher game, not the Anime. Some of the conventions of the game, such as the short monster lifespan, may be surprising to those familiar with the show. Likewise, the game does not have the convention from the show of naming monsters after their type. It is also important to know that the Pixie/Henger combination is not possible in the game. 

Later chapters of this story will contain violence, sexual themes, and disturbing imagery. For this reason it is rated PG-13.

Monster Rancher, the Monster Rancher universe, and the monsters unique to this game are the property of Tecmo. This is a work of fanfiction. The characters in this story, including the unique depiction of the Pixie/Henger combination, are my own creation.

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"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 1  


  


I was born in the summer, when the ground was warm and rich with the smell of life. The breezes blew down from the mountains, cool and pleasant. My first memories are of the stable doors, standing wide open, as I lay in the shade, sniffing the air for hints of what awaited me out there in the sunlight. 

My Master named me Steppenwolf. 

My childhood was an idyllic one, filled with love and happiness. My Master was never too firm with me, although I knew that he expected a lot from me, and I strove to do the best I could to please him. I grew from a clumsy and inexperienced child into a strong and agile young adult, and soon mastered every task I was given to do. 

In the Arena I made my Master proud. I fought valiantly and hard, learning from my mistakes and taking pride in my accomplishments, as I found myself growing stronger and more skilled. And my Master was proud of me, too. That meant more to me than anything else. 

Before I was even a year old, I began to understand that I was special, unique, a rare Gray Wolf and not just a mere Tiger. My Master told me that I was his favorite, his star monster. Although I knew that he was just saying it to make me feel proud of myself, and that he loved all the monsters of the Ranch equally, it still made me feel good. 

As the months passed and I worked myself up through the ranks I could feel my Master's pride in me grow. There were many elder monsters on the Ranch, the oldest being the Master's first, a Rover named Ralph. He was always brought out of the Freezer on holidays, even though he did not have many days left. He told me of my Master's dream to be a great breeder and finally get one of his monsters to the Big Four tournaments. I promised myself then and there that I would make my Master's dream come true. 

And I did just that. I was there when my Master became a Master Breeder. I was never happier than when I stood beside him at the ceremony. I wanted everyone to know that as strong and fast as I had become, it was my Master's love and skill as a trainer that had gotten me that far. 

Even before that great day, however, I had become aware of the passage of more and more time between the tournaments for which I was brought out of the Freezer. I understood, of course. A monster's life is short and harsh, like an Arena battle, and in the end it is a battle that you can never win. I was happy that I was able to bring money into the Master's Ranch, and help it grow into a beautiful, happy place. 

As Ralph had done for me, I shared my wisdom with the younger ones, letting them know that they were important and loved. Some of them, of course, did not feel the power of loyalty as only a Tiger can, but they were all happy. And so was I. 

But I was only being brought out for the sporadic Grand Tournament every year or so. I began to realize that my Master was growing old. He had never started a family, and tried to raise children of his own. His monsters were his children, but I began to wonder what would become of us if anything were to happen to him. 

It was in my third year that my worst fear came true. 

* * * * *

I awakened cold and somewhat stiff, as I always did after a Freezing. I shook myself, to get the last of the icicles out of my coat, and looked around. Master was usually there to greet me when I was revived, but this time there was only the Lab Technician. This fellow was new, I had not seen him when I was Frozen, so I did not know his name. 

"Steppenwolf... is it?" he looked down at his notepad. "Are you feeling all right?" 

It was normal to check on a monster's condition right after a thaw, since there was a possibility of a bad Freezing. "Sure, I feel all right. A little cold, but no lingering effects." I stretched my legs, to test them. 

"Follow me." The tech had an uncomfortably businesslike tone to his voice, but I was looking forward to seeing Master. I followed him as he led me out of the Freezer area and into the front room of the Lab. 

Master was not there. I looked around for him, although I could clearly tell that his scent was not present in the room. I began to suspect that something was wrong, but I kept silent. 

The technician led me over to a pair of men. One of them was a fairly overweight man in very expensive clothes. I had seen his type before, at the Tournaments. Many of the monsters I had fought were raised by these kinds of trainers, who bought the very best monsters and training equipment money could buy in order to recoup the expenses in the Arena. I always defeated such bought and paid for monsters, but it was always a tough fight. 

The other man was a Lab Tech type, an intelligent looking man in a long coat. He looked me over, carefully. The other man, however, did not even spare a glance at me. 

"This is the one. He's won the Big Four twice and consistently wins the Diamond Cup. He's considered one of the five best monsters on the continent. He's won over 100,000 gold." 

The man in the coat looked startled. "100,000 gold, in only three years!" 

"More, actually. 110,800, to be exact." 

I had never heard how much money I had made for my Master. I was proud to know that it was that much. But I had other concerns, at the moment. 

"Excuse me. Where is my Master?" 

The fat man frowned at me. "Tell that animal to shut up. I'm trying to do a deal here." 

I felt every muscle in my body tense, as anger rose within me. My first instinct was to force it back down, but instead I let it out as a snarl of indignity. My Master deserved at least that much. 

"I would like to know what has happened to my Master," I said, to the Lab Tech. "I can see that something has happened and I deserve to know what is going on, before this goes any further..." 

The Tech looked a little startled, then uncomfortable. "I'm sorry. Your trainer is dead. He was killed in an accident a few weeks ago." 

I struggled to keep from fainting. "What kind of an accident?" 

"We're not sure about the details... he was on an expedition. There was a cave in or a rock slide... like I said, I'm not sure about the details." 

"Couldn't you have explained all this later?" the fat man complained. "My time is valuable." 

"I apologize," I said. "I had a feeling something like this had happened. I was unable to just stand here and say nothing. I will not interrupt you any more." 

"I hope not." The man said. 

He turned back to his dealings with the Lab Tech, but for me the sick feeling in my stomach was only getting worse. This was clearly not the kind of trainer I was used to. I had heard stories, of course, of trainers that whipped or even injured their monsters with their strict discipline. I doubted that I would need to be controlled in such a way, but if this was the type of Human who would abuse someone for no reason... 

No sense worrying about that, I told myself. Whether I am being sold because my Master had debts, or simply because he left no heirs to inherit his Ranch, I will do my Master's memory proud. I will serve this new master as I did my last. 

* * * * *

I saw very little of either of the two humans for a while, as I was packed into a crate and placed on a ship. The trip was uneventful, but not very comfortable. Again, I could not help but think that this Trainer was not a very kind one, if he packed monsters in crates, but I resolved to make the best of it. I did everything that I was told, allowing unfamiliar handlers to take me off of the ship and bring me to my new master's ranch. 

The fat man's Ranch turned out to be a very comfortable place. It was, as I expected, trimmed with the trappings of wealth, fresh paint on the stables, fine, new equipment, elaborate landscaping, and large areas for display of trophies and certificates. The Ranch was actually bigger than I thought a Ranch could be, a huge, grassy field, dotted with buildings arranged in rows and connected by wide paths. 

It was late, and apparently all the monsters were in the stables for the night. Even so, I could tell by the scents in the air that there were many monsters here. I had only ever encountered more at a Tournament. It amazed me that one trainer could be raising so many monsters, all at the same time. I guessed that with so many monsters to care for, the handlers were not very close to any of them, and in fact they were very strict and businesslike with me. 

I was led to a large building near the center of the field. As the handlers brought me inside, I started to realize that this was a Lab of some sort, as there was Freezing and Combining equipment set in rooms off to either side of the main pathway down the center of the building. There didn't seem to be any techs around, but that might have been due to the lateness of the hour. 

We stopped near a room close to the back of the building. The men gestured me inside and I did as I was told. There were a couple of tables in the room and some equipment that I did not recognize. "Wait here." One of the men said. "The tech will be here in a second." 

I turned and sat on the floor, as the ranch hands left me there. They walked away, chatting with each other about things completely unrelated to me. I resigned myself to wait for this technician to arrive. 

As silence fell over the lab, however, I heard a sound from nearby. It was a female voice, humming. Curious, I left the room, in search of the source of the sound and found it in another room next to mine. Sitting on the table in that room, kicking her feet, was a young Pixie, maybe six months old. 

She didn't look like any Pixie I had ever seen before. She wasn't a Mopsy, but her hair was a dark, rich shade of brown. And her eyes were vivid green, almost glowing, in the half darkness. She had a large bruise under one eye. There was some sort of a tan covering over her legs and arms. She wore a one-piece suit of the same color over her chest and belly. 

She jumped into the air, as she saw me, and hung there, her wings beating gently. Her wings were white, but not feathered, like an Angel's. They were skin, stretched over tan colored pinions. She looked startled, maybe even frightened, and I spoke quickly to calm her down. 

"Sorry I scared you. I'm new here. My name's Steppenwolf." 

"What are you doing here?" She asked accusingly. 

"I'm not sure. I just got here, like I said. I guess the tech is going to check me out." 

"Frank? Check you out?" 

"I guess..." I glanced back over my shoulder, as there was the sound of footsteps from the other side of the building. "Here comes someone now." 

I stepped out of the way as the technician approached. It was the man that I had seen before, with the fat man, when I was awakened. He smiled at me as her came near and then saw the Pixie in the room behind me. She settled down onto the table as he entered. 

"Hello, Sandy. What's wrong?" 

She shrugged. "Nothing. That dumb Gene just brought me in here anyway." 

The man walked over to her and tilted her face up. She scowled at him. "Looks to me like you got into another fight." 

The little Pixie jerked her head free. "It wasn't my fault. She started it." 

"Who? No, never mind, it doesn't matter. You should just stay away from them. They're just jealous, you know." 

"What do you know about it?" Sandy crossed her arms, pouting. The name fit her; she was sort of the color of sand. "I don't wanna have anything to do with 'em. They always start it." 

"I know." The tech walked over to a cabinet and brought out some kind of a jar. He put some cream on the Pixie's bruise. "They're just jealous because you're unique and they're not." 

"A freak, you mean." She said. 

"Different, I mean. Now you stay out of fights from now on. You'll be training for the Arena soon and we don't need you all bruised and beat up." 

"I can handle myself." 

There was a moment's silence while the tech studied his handiwork, then he looked down at me. "So... Steppenwolf. Have you met Sandy?" 

"He just walked in here," the Pixie said. "I didn't tell him to." 

"I heard her from next door. I didn't think anyone would mind." 

"No one does. Welcome to the Curtis Ranch." 

"Are you Frank?" 

"Yes." He glanced at Sandy. "Was she telling you about me?" 

"Actually, we hadn't talked that much before you showed up. We were just getting acquainted." 

"Butting in, you mean," Sandy said. She crossed her arms again. 

"Sandy, be nice," Frank said. "Steppenwolf is new here. He needs a friend." 

"I don't need him," Sandy protested. 

Frank started to speak, but I interrupted him. "What kind of Pixie are you?" 

"None of your business..." She uncrossed her arms. "But I'm a Pixie/Henger." 

"Oh?" I looked at Frank, startled. "So she isn't a rare?" 

"She might as well be. She's the only Pixie/Henger anyone has ever successfully bred. She's the culmination of years of research." 

"You do research here?" 

Frank nodded. "We've been doing research since the boss's great grandfather started this ranch a hundred years ago. This is the largest and most advanced Ranch in the IMa area..." 

That startled me even more. "I'm on the IMa continent?" I thought about it for a moment. "I guess that boat ride WAS a long one." 

"Well, you're here now and I need to run some tests on you. But first, let me get Sandy back to her stable." 

Frank helped the little Pixie down off of the table, but as they walked past me, I stopped her. 

"Hold on." I turned to Sandy. "Have you ever seen a Tiger like me before?" 

She frowned at me, but then her frown faded as she studied me. Her head sort of tilted to one side. 

"You haven't have you? I'm a Gray Wolf... a rare in the FIMBA area... and there aren't any like me at all here, are there?" 

I looked up at Frank for confirmation, and he nodded. "I'm unique, one of a kind, different... just like you. And the other monsters used to tease me, too." 

Sandy reached out, to touch my silvery gray fur. "It's soft..." she muttered. Oddly, so was her hand, although it appeared to be made out of black iron. And it was warm, too, not cold, as a Henger's hands usually were. 

She drew her hand back, the frown returning, as she closed back up again. But I could tell that I had gotten to her. "If you ever want to talk, you just come look for me. I'll be around." 

Sandy stared at me for a moment more, but then she bit her lip, and sort of exhaled. "I... I will." Frank led her to the door, and she disappeared into the growing darkness. 

"Thanks a lot," Frank said, as he walked back over to me. "The other Pixies tease her mercilessly. It'll do her good to have a friend here." 

"She needs a friend. I know what she's going through." 

"You're not like most of the monsters I have to deal with," Frank said, with a grin. 

I looked up at him. "You're not like most of the ranch hands at this place. You seem to care about these monsters." 

He sighed. "You're far too perceptive. Mr. Curtis doesn't view monsters as creatures with feelings and hopes, he just sees them as a way to make money. As I said, his father was a Trainer, and his father a Trainer before him. To him, this is a business..." 

"And to you?" 

He smiled. "A little more than a business. A chance to make a name for myself. And to make a difference." 

"This ranch was the first to breed a Henger/Dragon. We were the first to create a Disk Niton from one of your Disk monsters. And I've been doing research into DNA... what makes one monster different from another... in hopes of unlocking the secret of why rares, like you, can't be bred." 

"So you're going to be Combining me, then?" 

He shook his head. "No, you're too valuable for that. But if I can use some of the material from your body in another Cross, to create a Gray Wolf like you..." 

"I wouldn't be unique any more..." I wasn't sure if that made me excited, or scared. 

"All I need is a few blood samples. And I'll want to do a complete physical, to see what kind of shape you're in. If you'll hop up on this table..." 

"Sure." I leaped up onto the tabletop, turning around to look back at him. "I guess this lab's as good as the one I was in, huh?" 

"Pretty much." He watched me, apparently impressed by how effortlessly I had made the leap. "You seem in pretty good shape for your age. Your trainer must have been talented." 

I sighed as I thought about my Master. "I owe everything I am to him." 

"You miss him, don't you?" He then laughed at himself. "That's a dumb question, of course you do." 

"I don't want to burden you with my problems. This is my home now." 

He ruffled my mane. "I know enough about Tigers to know what that means. And thanks. But listen... any time you feel like talking, you come see me. You need a friend too, you know." 

Frank smiled. "I know I can't ever replace your Master. But I hope I can at least be your friend." 

I smiled back at him. "I am sure that you can." 


	2. A Secret Place

  
"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 2  


  


I stepped into the ring. It wasn't an Arena, really. It was the same size, but a wooden, circular wall marked the edges of the area, and the floor was a grassy field. For a training ground, however, it was pretty well built. I was used to sparring out back of my Master's stable, in a ring marked out with ropes. 

My opponent entered from an opening on the other side of the ring. He was a Dragon, or at least, that's what I assumed he was. He looked like no Dragon I'd ever seen before, more stocky and muscular, like a bear or an ape, only with ruddy scales. And he didn't have the long neck and triangular head I expected to see, only a flat, wide reptilian head filled with sharp teeth. 

I had heard than IMa Dragons didn't look like FIMBA Dragons, though. From the looks of it, this type was even stronger and more powerful that the ones I was used to fighting. So... my new owner intended to put me to the test, then. 

"Steppenwolf, meet Inferno," Brom said. "Inferno, this is the new kid, here." He gave me a wicked smile, not at all kind. "Show him the ropes, won't you?" 

"Count on it," the dragon rumbled. 

I showed him no reaction, but inside, I chuckled to myself. Inferno? This Ranch certainly had no imagination when it came to naming. Brom patted the dragon on the foreleg as he passed, leaving the ring. It was obvious he intended for the monster to thrash me, probably to teach me my "place". Brom was one of the stable hands. He was never very friendly to me, but he had his favorites, his "pets". This dragon was probably one of them. 

Well, I didn't expect to do well my first time out. I would size this opponent up, and try and just make a good showing of it. 

Mr. Curtis, sitting in a box to one side of the training ring, sounded a horn. Apparently that was the signal to begin, as the Dragon immediately took to the air. Seeing a Flame Attack coming, I quickly leaped to the side, and sure enough, he breathed a gout of fire where I had been. I quickly raced closer to him. 

The secret to fighting Dragons is to stay close to them. Don't give them room to take to the air, or they'll fry you. Of course, being close to a dragon isn't very safe either. Even where I had come from, dragons were muscular, and had sharp claws, and knew how to use them. I knew from experience that a fight with a Dragon rarely lasted long. 

As I charged, Inferno lumbered forwards, slashing at me with his claws. I leaped aside, however, dodging his swing with ease. I let him take a few more swipes at me, testing his speed. He was a bit slower than I expected, but I realized that he might also be testing me, as well. I leaped at him, to try my One-Two attack, but he managed to dodge it. 

So... he WAS faster than he was letting on. I leaped in with a Slash, while he was recovering from the dodge. I caught him across the rib cage, but didn't think I did much damage. I jumped back, putting a little more distance between us. 

Inferno reared up, flapping his wings. The gust bowled me over, throwing me to the ground. I was caught off guard; I hadn't been expecting him to be able to use the attack at that range. As I leaped back to my feet, he charged in, and caught me with a Tail Whip. I was thrown into the wall of the Arena with a crash. 

I blacked out momentarily, and when I came to, Brom was counting me out. I decided to lay still. As he finished counting me out, I stood, shaking my head. 

"Good fight..." I said, still a little dazed. "He is a strong fighter." 

Brom laughed. "You'll find out just how strong in a minute." 

"What do you mean?" I asked, as he started to walk away. Inferno had already taken up his initial position on the other side of the ring again. "Oh... is this more than one round?" 

"Three rounds. Or until you can't stand up any more." He laughed again. 

I smiled. Okay. Mr. Brom is in for a surprise... as is his pet Dragon. 

Curtis sounded his horn again, and this time I leaped straight up in the air, coming down on Inferno's head. He roared as I sank my teeth into the membrane of his ear, and then I danced down his back. He tried to bring his tail around to hit me, but I dodged it effortlessly. 

As he turned his bulk to face me, I let the power build inside me. Concentrating, I felt the sparks begin to play across my horns, saw the blue lightning in front of my field of vision. I fired the Lightning, hitting him square in the face, as he tried to snap at me. Then I danced aside again. 

Inferno blinked, momentarily blinded by the flash. I built the charge up again, and let him have it, right in the chest. He reeled back, the shock of the electricity making him lose control of his muscles. When he struck at me, his blow was so weak that I didn't even bother to dodge, but instead sank my fangs into his wrist. 

Inferno roared in pain. I was making him mad, but he was dazed, too. I leaped around behind him, and he flailed about, looking for me. I kept just out of his reach, zapping him with Lightning, or snapping with my jaws as he came at me, but he never laid a claw on me. When the horn sounded again, I was winded, but I had done what I intended to do. 

"An excellent fight, Steppenwolf," Curtis said from his vantage point above the ring. "I must say, you surprised me." 

"Cheater!" Inferno called out, as Brom tried to pull him back to his starting spot in the ring. "You sneaky little... I would have expected that from a cowardly TIGER!" He was obviously trying to goad me, but I just laughed and returned to my place. 

"Power is no good if you can't lay a blow, Inferno," Curtis said. "I've warned you about that before." 

"He'll do better this time, Boss," Brom said. He glared at me. "Count on it." 

I sighed. Well, obviously Brom isn't going to be a friend after this. 

The horn sounded again, and again I leaped the length of the Arena, giving Inferno no time to use his flame. This time he was ready, though, and slapped me to one side with his clawed hand. I bit my lip as I jumped back to my feet, darting to the side just in time to dodge his tail. Inferno was mad. Okay. Time to use that to my advantage. 

I ran right at him, closing to point blank range. Again, he slapped me aside. Again I closed, staying as close to him as possible. He kicked at me with his feet, knocking me sprawling across the grass. 

I gritted my teeth against the pain and ran in again. As he pulled back, I suddenly jumped to the side, and this time his fist sailed past me. Gathering my power, I used his arm as a springboard and flipped myself up to his face. I kicked him with all four feet, channeling my Lightning through my claws as I did, and he roared, reeling back in pain. 

I darted back, but he recovered quickly. I made sure not to give him enough room to move, but let him keep batting me around the ring. The pain, as he continued to beat on me, made my anger grow, and I held onto it, held it in check. His powerful blows were painful, but at least they were not deadly. 

Even so, I knew I didn't have much time. I couldn't take this kind of punishment for very long. But the rage was growing within me. And as I became angrier, he grew angrier, too. He began to taunt me. "Enjoying this, puppy?" he said. "Well, enjoy THIS!" 

He grabbed me in a massive fist. I cried out as his claws cut into me, and then he flung me at the wall. As the wooden fence came at me, and the red rage built to the breaking point, I knew this was the time. I twisted myself in the air, and hit the wall feet first. 

With a massive leap, I shot back at the Dragon, slamming into him full force with my head, my horns absorbing the impact. I then rolled back off of him, leaping as my feet gained purchase on his scaled body. I shot back the length of the Arena, again striking the wall, and again used its leverage to catapult myself back at the Dragon. I performed this circle three times, and Inferno roared in pain each time I struck him. 

As I completed the final loop, and rolled across the grass to stop in front of the wall, I came back up on my feet. I let it all build up in me, the rage, the pain, the anger, the fury. I let it all swell up inside me, until I could no longer contain it. And then I let it out. 

The growl built in my throat, low, quiet, menacing, beyond control. It grew, of its own power, from my chest, up my throat, out through my mouth as I threw back my head and Roared. The blast of wind, rushing air and sound energy, swept over Inferno, flinging him like a rag doll into the wall. The wood splintered, collapsed on top of him, but then was swept up and away. Inferno continued to roll, driven by the force of the blast, until he finally stopped and lay still. 

I closed my eyes, trying to get my racing heart back under control. I could hear Brom shouting, trying to pull his monster out from under the wreckage. I could also hear Mr. Curtis, obviously impressed by my victory, shouting something back to him. But at the moment, all I could hear was the roaring of the blood in my ears. 

I had managed to calm down, however, by the time Mr. Curtis joined me at the wall. "That was excellent!" he said. "I wasn't sure you were as good a deal as I was told, but NOW I'm convinced." 

"Thank you, sir," I said, still struggling to catch my breath. 

"I heard talk about that jumping technique of yours. It's a lot more impressive in person." 

"My Master called it 'The Circle', sir." 

Mr. Curtis suddenly frowned, glaring at me. I was a bit taken aback by the intensity of his expression, until he spoke. 

"I am your master now, Steppenwolf." 

I blanched. "I am sorry, sir. I should have said 'former Master'. I apologize." I lowered my head. "I meant no offense, Mr. Curtis." 

"Why don't you call me Master?" 

I looked up at him. It took a few moments before I could answer, but then I took a deep breath, and forced myself to speak. 

"I cannot call you by that name, sir. Again, I mean no offense, and I am truly sorry. But that name is for one man, and one man only." 

"I will call you Mr. Curtis, or Trainer, or Boss, as these men call you, or..." 

Curtis waved a hand at me, dismissively. "As long as you fight like that in the Arena, I could care less what you call me." 

"I will do my best, sir. You have my word." 

"Tigers," Curtis muttered. He turned and walked away. 

* * * * *

After the battle with Inferno, I was let out into the field with the other monsters. I was looking forward to getting a chance to look around the stables, and meet the other monsters. There was a small group of us in the building that I had a stall in. I wanted to get to know some of them. They didn't seem to want to talk to me, though, and in fact rarely even spoke to each other. 

There was one other Tiger in the group, a scaled Dino cross, just a little bit older than me. The FIMBA word for his breed was Dento, but I later learned that in the IMa area he was called a Datonaire. There were also a couple of Hare crosses, and one large canine creature of a type I had never seen before. There were at least twelve stalls in each stable, but only five in my group, so I guessed that the ranch wasn't currently filled to capacity. 

I wandered the field looking for the monsters I had met before. The Hares had met up with some other Hares from another stable. The Dento and the dog-creature had joined a bunch of dinosaurs -- not Dinos, but obviously similar. I assumed that the Dento had managed to get into the group because of his Dino blood. 

The rest of the monsters were pretty much divided by type. There was a group of Pixies gossiping over by one building. I thought of Sandy, but I didn't see her with them. There were some Nagas, some Golems, and a whole lot more monsters I didn't even recognize. None of them seemed interested in talking to me, though, so I decided to explore. 

The ranch turned out to be huge. It went on forever, it seemed. The field seemed to be fenced in, and as I neared the fence I saw humans walking around. Some of them seemed to get concerned as I walked towards them, so I guessed that the human section was off limits to monsters. That was fine with me, I wanted to explore the back parts of the ranch, anyway. 

Following the fence line over some hills I came to a forest. I walked into the trees, finding their shade comfortable, but I could tell from the scent in the breeze that there was little to find there. I could smell water, though, off to the right, and so I headed off in that direction. 

I made my way through the underbrush, finally coming across a small lake. A stream led out of it, and over on the other side, the forest sort of thinned out. I circled around, to the other side of the little lake, and followed the stream as it skirted around the outside of the forest. 

It was there that I spotted Sandy, sitting on a rock beside the stream. I walked over to her, intending to say hello, but as I approached, I heard her sobbing. She was crying! I slowed my steps, but walked quietly closer to her. 

"Sandy?" I called out to her, just before I came near. She looked up at me, startled. Then she wiped her face. 

"What are you doing here?" She glared at me, as if it was my fault that she was crying. 

"I was exploring. What are you doing here?" 

"None of your business." 

"Okay." I thought for a moment. "Tell you what. Let me see if I can guess why you're here, and if I'm right, you tell me." 

I looked around "Let's see... you're obviously here alone. And probably that stream runs all the way across the ranch, so it isn't possible to be on this side of it unless you fly across it. You're over here behind the forest, so it's not likely anybody knows about this place. So this is your secret place, where you go to be alone. Am I right?" 

"What if it is?" 

"Nothing." I shrugged. "I won't tell anybody if you won't. Maybe I want a secret place, too." 

"You can't have this one. It's mine." 

"Oh, so it IS your secret place." I grinned. "Gotcha." 

She turned pink. "You tricked me." 

"I didn't mean any harm by it. Why would you want to be alone, though? Why aren't you with the other Pixies?" 

She sat down on the rock, turning away from me. "They don't like me. Nobody likes me." 

"I like you." 

"You're just saying that. Go away." 

"No." I shook my head. "There isn't any reason why those other Pixies shouldn't like you. So if they don't like you, it's their fault, not yours." 

"It is my fault... I'm different." 

"So. I'm different." 

She looked up at me. Her green eyes were glittering, and she was trembling. She suddenly turned to look away from me, and put her arm over her face. 

"I'm going to die!" 

"What...? Who told you that?" 

"They did. The Pixies." 

I frowned. "You shouldn't believe everything you hear. Especially that..." 

"But I am!" She looked up at me, tears running down her cheeks. "Don't you know what happens to Pixie/Hengers?" 

I shook my head. "I'd never even seen a Pixie/Henger before you. I didn't know they existed." 

"They DON'T!" She choked. "I'm... I won't... I'll..." 

She broke down, unable to continue talking. She just sobbed, her face cradled in her hands. 

I walked closer to her. "What are you trying to say? You look fine, to me. You look like you'll live a good, long life." 

She shook her head. "No. I'll die... in about a month or two, I'll die. It happens... it happens every time..." 

I nudged her with my muzzle. "Look... whatever happens... to other monsters... that doesn't have to happen to you. Those other Pixies..." I shook my head. "They have their own reasons for wanting you to give up. But you CAN'T give up. You have to fight." 

She looked up at me. She was still crying, but... was that hope in her eyes? "If you fight back... if you BELIEVE in yourself... you can beat anything. I KNOW. And you're not alone. We can fight this together..." 

Sandy threw her arms around my neck. "I'll talk to Frank," I told her. "I know he'll be able to tell you the truth. You just stop listening to those Pixies. Okay?" 

She sniffled. "Okay." 


	3. Life And Death

  
"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 3  


  


"Who told Sandy she's going to die?!!!" Frank asked. 

"The Pixies," I told him. "At least that's what she said." 

"Dammit!" Frank slammed his fist into the wall. "Why can't they leave well enough alone?" 

There was a short silence. "So... it's true, then?" 

"Well..." Frank looked at the floor. "Yes... and no..." 

"That's not much of an answer." 

Frank turned to face me. "I am not going to let Sandy die. That's all there is to it." 

I remained silent. "But..." He sighed. "There were two attempts before Sandy. Neither one made it." 

He walked over to the lab table, idly picking up a piece of equipment, and putting it back down. "I don't know if you've seen many Henger subs. They're all Hengers -- machines -- biological machines, technology far in advance of anything we have today, but still just machines." 

I had seen Techno Dragons, and Gangsters. Basically, Hengers, but in the shape of Dragons, or Magics. 

"With Pixies, however, it's different. The types just aren't compatible... the Pixie half resists joining with the Henger half. What you end up with is, like Sandy, half human and half machine. 

"Most of what results from a Pixie/Henger combination doesn't live very long. Fortunately." He shuddered. "We were able to stabilize the process, though. Instead of a deformed jumble of organic and inorganic parts, we got... well... Sandy. A compromise. Human torso, but Henger arms and legs." 

I nodded. "That makes sense." 

"The problem is, the compromise doesn't last. At about nine months, right before the onset of puberty, the Pixie becomes obsessed with her Henger half. She goes crazy... eventually tearing herself apart in her madness. With our first try we weren't expecting it. The second... we caught her all right, but she convinced us the danger was over. Then she disappeared. We found her again two days later..." 

Frank shook his head, as if dispelling a bad memory. "I won't let that happen to Sandy. I was hoping the other Pixies would keep their mouths shut, but..." 

"Funny that it happens just before adolescence," I commented. 

"Yes, that's what I thought, too." He looked up at me. "We all know how vain Pixies can be. Their self-image is very important to them, especially during adolescence. My theory is, somehow the conflict between the Henger and Pixie halves manifests itself as this obsession. The Pixie becomes convinced that her Henger parts make her unattractive. She's driven to... remove them... any way she can." 

"It doesn't help that the other Pixies have been putting her down. Calling her a freak, and so on." 

Frank nodded. "I've been trying to keep her away from them, but..." He sighed. "I don't get as much help from the stable hands as I should..." 

"What should I tell her? She deserves to know the truth." 

"Well, despite what I said about the stable hands, we have someone watching Sandy twenty four hours a day. I don't want to lose her, and more importantly, Mr. Curtis doesn't want to lose another Pixie/Henger either. And when Mr. Curtis wants something, his men know better than to fail him." 

"The moment Sandy shows signs of self-destructive behavior, her handlers have orders to restrain her. If we have to, we'll tie her down, for the whole three months that it'll take her body to finish maturing. I'm hoping it won't come to that, but we won't make the same mistakes we made the last time..." 

* * * * *

Sandy and I walked into the training ring. "Okay... Sandy's fought a few of our E class monsters before, just to get her ready," Frank was telling me. "Now I want to give her a little more intensive training. You did say that you did some training on Mr. Blayyde's ranch?" 

I nodded. "Usually A and B class monsters, but I helped out with the younglings when I could." 

"I figured as much. You may be a bit too much of a challenge to Sandy, but I know you'll pull your punches. I'm not so sure about some of the other monsters..." 

"Like Inferno, for instance." 

"Yes." Frank laughed. "I heard about your fight with him. Brom's been calling you all kinds of names, since then. He's not happy with you... and neither is Inferno." 

"Inferno was a pushover. He's never progressed beyond A class, has he? He's used to beating up on his opponents, but I'll bet he's never once faced someone stronger than he is. Am I right?" 

Frank nodded, smiling. "So," I continued. "He never once learned how to use skill, intelligence in a fight. Much less control his temper." I laughed to myself. "It was almost too easy to make him lose control." 

I winked at Sandy. "My old Master always taught me, anyone can beat someone who's weaker than they are. That's easy. The hard part is beating someone who's STRONGER than you are. That's when you REALLY learn how to fight." 

Frank knelt next to the little Pixie. "Do you think you're gonna be okay?" 

"I'm not scared," she said. "'Teppenwuf is my friend." 

"Good." Frank smiled again. "Now, you go in there and fight the best that you can. You'll be going in the Arena soon, and we'll all be counting on you." 

We left Frank at the door to the Arena as we went to our respective starting positions. Sandy was fidgeting excitedly, but she waited patiently in her spot until Frank sounded the horn. Then she spread her wings and took to the air, racing towards me. 

I leaped forward, closing with her as fast as she was moving towards me. As she came within range, I dodged to one side. She tried to chase me down, but I stepped backward. She followed, slapping at me with her metal hand. I darted forwards, slipping past her easily, and turned around, again backing away as she continued to swipe at me. 

Her attack was weak, almost halfhearted, and from the sidelines, Frank was calling out to her. "Sandy! Don't use your hand-to-hand attacks! How many times do I have to tell you?" 

Ah, the old weak spot of Pixies. I slowed my retreat a little, and let her hit me a few times. The damage was minor, not even a scratch against my toughened hide, but she was grinning like she was accomplishing something. 

In a flash, I darted forward, kicking at her with my feet. Her green eyes grew wide, but she was so taken by surprise that she did not even attempt to dodge. I flipped over, kicking upward with my back feet, and the maneuver sent her tiny frame sailing across the ring. As she hit the ground, her eyes still wide and frightened, I landed nimbly back on my feet. 

I Roared. It wasn't even a tenth of my power, not nearly as much as I'd channeled into the attack when I used it on Inferno. But it was enough to pick up Sandy, toss her around like a rag doll, and throw her into the Arena wall. She lay there, stunned. 

She blinked, coming around, as I walked up to her. "You... I... you didn't give me any time!" 

"YOU AREN'T EVEN TRYING!" I snapped, my voice angry. She looked up at me, frightened again. "You figured I wouldn't fight back, because I'm your friend! You could have dodged that Combination easy, I telegraphed it so well I'm sure Frank saw it, but you didn't even TRY to get away!" 

"I... I'm sorry." 

"That's better." I smiled at her. "Look, if you're going to take me on, you're going to have to give me everything you've got. You can't just play around." 

She stood up, and dusted herself off. "I'll do better. I promise." 

"Okay. One other thing. You were trying to scratch me, like this." I mimed batting at her with my paw. "But you don't have any claws. Use your feet, instead. You probably have more power than most Pixies, and your legs are definately heavier. So use that to your advantage." 

She nodded. "Kick. Okay." 

I backed away towards my starting spot. "And use your range attacks. I know it's hard, but just concentrate..." 

We waited until Frank blew his horn again, and then Sandy hopped forward. She summoned a Ray and fired it at me. I leaped aside. "Good! Good!" 

I ran towards her, and she took to the air, circling around me, and then back winging to put more distance between us. This time she raised her hand in the air, gathering an electric charge, and blasted me with it. The attack only stung a little, and made my fur stand on end, but that she had hit me at all was a great accomplishment. 

Before she could celebrate I gathered some Lightning of my own and projected it back at her. She only barely dodged the sheet of sparkling energy, rolling across the grass. I raced forward and nipped her on the arm, but as I backed away she caught me across the head with her heel. 

"Good! You remembered!" 

Sandy giggled, then gave a girlish yelp as I came at her again. I leaped over her head as she tried to kick me, and butted her in the back with my head. She stumbled forward, but then spread her wings, and let her momentum carry her into the air. 

She swiveled in midair, turning to face me as she did, and raised her arm up to point her fist at me. At the very moment I realized what was about to happen, there was a loud roar, and Sandy's fist shot from her arm on a column of flame. I only barely dodged in time, and it caught me on the shoulder, bouncing off to shoot off into the wall. 

Sandy, however, stumbled backwards, her mouth wide open in shock. She tripped, and fell hard on her bottom. She put her other hand to the stump, staring at it in amazement. Frank came running across the field. "Sandy! That was amazing!" 

"Don't be scared," I told her, as I walked over to her. "That was the first time, huh?" 

Frank nodded. "She's never used Fist Missile before. We weren't even sure she could." 

"Cool! Your own personal attack, huh?" 

"How... ?" She trembled a little. "I wan' it back!" 

"Just concentrate. Think about it coming back." 

Sandy closed her eyes. There was a roar of sound from the Arena wall, and suddenly the fist flew back at us. I sidestepped out of the way as the fist flew past me, but then it stopped short in front of Sandy, did an about face, and connected itself back to Sandy's outstretched arm. 

"That... that was weird..." Sandy stroked the reattached hand with her other hand, opening and closing the fingers. She clutched her arm to her chest, shuddering. "I don't ever wanna do that again." 

Frank put his arms around her, while I nuzzled her face. "It's okay," I said. "You'll get used to it." 

"Yeah. You don't have to do it again right away. You'll learn how to master all your attacks, at your own pace. Someday you'll be as good as Steppenwolf, here..." 

She looked up at me, startled. Then, there was a little pride, at what she had done. But mostly, there was still the fear. I smiled at her, reassuringly. "You've done very good today, Sandy. Let's go celebrate." 

* * * * *

Sandy rode on my back as I took her through the woods, retracing my path to the place where I'd found her, before. She twisted her hands in my fur, lying down against my neck when I had to duck under a branch or giggling as I leaped over an old stump. She said nothing until we reached the lake, and I skirted around its north side until we emerged in the clearing. 

"Wow! You CAN get around to it on foot." 

"Well, if you're a Tiger that knows how to walk in the forest, anyway." 

She giggled. "I'd rather fly. It's more fun." 

"Well, since I don't have any wings, I wouldn't know." 

"Maybe when I get bigger, I'll carry you!" She giggled very loudly, at that. 

I walked over to her rock, and she hopped off of my back and onto it. The she sat down, and started kicking her feet in the water. 

"I love the water," she said. "It makes my feet cool." 

"Me too." I jumped into the lake, mainly to make Sandy laugh. Then I rolled around in the water for a few minutes. I hadn't had a chance to clean myself up, after the battle with Inferno, and even I'd noticed I was starting to smell a little ripe. I didn't like the way my fur looked when it was dirty and dingy. 

Sandy made a face, holding her nose. "Ew. Wet Tiger." 

I quickly whipped around and grabbed her foot in my jaws. She gave a little squeal as I pulled her into the water. She splashed about a few moments, and then stood up, laughing. 

I shook myself and she squealed again, putting a hand up to shield her face. Then she splashed me. I rolled in the water some more to get my fur good and clean, and then stood up. Sandy was still splashing about, sending water in all directions by scooping it up with her arms and her wings. 

I waded out of the lake, and shook myself dry. Sandy crawled back onto the rock, and shook her head to get the water out of her dark hair. Then she started smoothing it back in place with her hands. 

I walked over to sit next to her, as Sandy turned on the rock, to face me. She stared at me for a moment, then reached up and grabbed the neckline of her suit. 

"'Teppenwolf! Wanna see something I've never shown nobody before?" 

"Um..." 

Sandy pulled the collar down. Instead of what I was afraid she was going to do, she pulled it straight down, revealing the center portion of her chest. Right there, just below her neck, was a large, green gem, embedded in her skin. It glowed, faintly, that same feeble glow as the one behind her eyes. 

"What is that?" 

"It's my Henger eye! I can see through it! At least when it's not covered up..." She looked down at herself, pursing her lips as she frowned at it. "I've never looked at nobody through it before..." 

She looked back up at me, grinning widely. "You're all glowing!" 

"I am?" 

"Yup!" She looked down at the gem again, and reluctantly covered it up. 

I gestured at her costume. "You know, when I was growing up, there was a Mint on the ranch. I always thought that was her fur." 

"Oh, it is. Some Pixies don' have ta wear clothes. But I do, 'cause I'm all naked underneath." She giggled. 

"But your arms... that's not just a covering. It's... Henger... all the way through." 

Sandy looked down as I put a paw on her arm. It was soft, the feel and texture of clay. Just like a Henger's shell. But just like a Henger's shell, I could tell it was much tougher than clay. It felt soft, but it was actually a lot harder than it looked. 

Sandy again picked up her hand in the other and rubbed it. Then she pressed her arm against her chest again. She closed her eyes. 

"I'm scared." 

"I know." 

"What did he say?" 

"That you're going to be just fine. He's not going to let you die." 

She looked down at her arm. "Am I even alive in the first place...?" 


	4. Love And Hate

  
"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 4  


  


"Which stall is he in?" 

"Shh. You wanna let the patrol know we're out here?" 

"Heh. I think Gene's supposed to be on patrol tonight. I'd say he's probably doing something else right now..." 

The voices awakened me from my sleep, and I lifted my head, my ears perking up to pick up more of the sound. It was a group of Dinos, I could hear their claws scuffling on the ground outside of the stable. The sound moved over closer to the door, and then there was a quiet scratching as one of them lifted the bolt. 

It had to be Dinos, of course. Or those skinny, massive-legged bird-headed things that passed as Dinos on this continent. No other monster would be stupid enough to believe it could sneak up on a Tiger, while yammering its fool head off. 

I watched as the door inched open, a pale sliver of white moonlight falling into the stable. The shadowy forms of the... Zuums, they were called... slipped through the door, cutting off the light, and then they closed the door again. I laid back down in the darkness, waiting for them. Might as well play along for the moment. 

The scuffling reached my stall, and one of them peeked over. I could barely see him, in the small amount of light that filtered in through the small window above my stall. "He's asleep," he whispered to his cohorts. "Open up the stall... quiet, now!" 

I forced back a chuckle as the latch rattled loudly, and the door creaked open. Did these morons actually believe no one could hear that? They filed in through the door to stand around me. "Look at the little puppy..." one of them commented. "He's been a bad, bad puppy." 

I heard the scratch of his claws on the wood as he drew back to kick me, and leaped upward. I turned a backflip in the air, over the heads of the two Zuums behind me, and landed on my feet. The one that had tried to kick me cried out in confusion as he realized that his target had moved. 

With only a little concentration, I let a charge build up in my horns. The blue light of the electricity lit up the stall, letting me see my attackers. There were six of them, three regular Zuums, two that were Pixie subs, and a red, scaley one. The red one was the one that had tried to kick me, and I figured that it was a Dragon cross. Under different circumstances, I probably would have marveled at all the new types of monsters I was getting to see over here. 

"Well, well, well. Let me guess. Inferno sent you to teach me a lesson, right?" 

"You're smarter than you look, puppy." The Dino... Zuum said. "But not smart enough. You don't humiliate Inferno and get away with it." 

"No? But it was so easy..." As one of the Zuums kicked at me, I leaped out of the way, bouncing off of the side of the stall to land on the other side of them. "And you guys are pretty stupid, too. You might have had a chance when I was asleep. But now I'm awake, and from the looks of you, you aren't even close to Inferno's level." I chuckled. "As low as that was..." 

"Why you smart-mouthed little..." One of the pink Zuums was getting mad, but his leader silenced him. 

"Inferno told us all about your little tricks," the red Zuum said. "He told us how you ran like a coward and hid behind him, where he couldn't reach. Well, there's six of us, now, and you can't run from all of us." 

"Who needs to run," I growled. "I'll take all six of you on. Come and get me! Unless YOU'RE the cowards..." 

As expected, that enraged the whole lot of them. They rushed at me, the Zuum/Dragon in the lead. I let my Lightning go out, and the stable was once again plunged into darkness. As the Zuums stumbled over one another in their blind rush to hit me, I leaped onto the railing of the stall, and raced along it until I was once again behind them. Then I opened my mouth and exhaled a Blizzard at them. 

Unlike Lightning, the blast of cold air did not light up the stall. And so the Zuums were still blind, unable to find me up on the railing. There were screaming and yelling at each other so much, though, that I knew where each of them was. I homed in on the red Zuum's voice and jumped down on him, pummeling him with my feet, before dancing off to one side. 

Outside the stall, I heard another voice. "The little silver one is in trouble." It was a deep, thick voice, slow and dumb-sounding. It was the big tan canine creature, whatever it was. 

His Dento friend answered him. "Stay out of it, Lenny. You'll only make it worse on him." 

Not likely. It was nice to know the big creature had compassion, though, even in a place like this. The Zuums' eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness, though, and as I leaped back up onto the railing of the stall, to escape a kick, another of the dinosaurs fired a fireball at me. 

"No, you idiot!" The red Zuum said. "You'll start a fire!" 

It was too late, though. As I jumped down off of the wooden rail, it was engulfed in flame. The fire quickly spread to the wall of the stable, and started to rise up it. 

The Zuums were no longer in darkness, and took advantage of the situation. One of them Scuffed at the floor, sending wood chips and dirt flying into my face. I shied back, my eyes stinging. The Zuums jumped on me, kicking me with their claws, and even my toughened skin wasn't hard enough to repel their scratches. 

I fought through the pain, calling on the power, channelling it out my horns. The stable lit up again as the Lightning ripped through the Zuums, throwing them off me. I leaped up, bounced off the stable wall, and sailed out of the stall, running as I hit the floor outside. 

The Zuums burst out of the stall, but the big tan creature was waiting for them. "You burn down stable! You bad!" It let out a groan, and the wind of its breath sent the Zuums tumbling back towards the far end of the stable. The rush of air also whipped up the flames. Lenny started to trudge forward, after the Zuums again, but the Dento stopped him. 

"You're only making the fire worse! Stop it!" 

"Fire worse?" Lenny repeated stupidly. He looked back at the flames, that had now engulfed my stall completely. 

"We've got to put that fire out!" I yelled to the Dento. "Can you use Blizzard?" 

He shook his head. "Just Ice Bomb." 

"It will have to do. I don't know if I can do this alone." 

"Wait." He turned to his friend. "Lenny, I want you to sing at the fire." 

Lenny shook his head. "You say I make it worse." 

"And you would, Lenny, but not if you sing RIGHT AT IT. And Gray Wolf here will help you." 

I exhaled another Blizzard, and Lenny joined me with his groaning attack. The two blasts mingled, forming a cyclone of supercooled air, which put out the flames in moments. I breathed a sigh of relief, as did, I noticed, the Zuums. 

Lenny jumped up and down excitely, his ears flapping. "We make fire go out!" 

"That we did," I said with a smile. I looked at his friend. "Sing? Odd name for an attack." 

"Lenny's not very bright. He thinks it's singing... I'm Swiftwind." 

"Good name for a Tiger," I commented. "I'm Steppenwolf." 

I looked up as there was movement from the door. A group of handlers came in, and the stable was lit by moonlight, flooding in through the open doors. "What's going on here?" One of the men demanded. 

"Stay out of this, Gray Wolf," Swiftwind hissed as he stepped forward. 

"Some Zuums tried to attack Steppenwolf while he was sleeping, Gene," he told the handler. He was a tall man, somewhat handsome, in human terms. He looked a little disheveled, and none to happy to be there. "They started a fire, but we were able to put it out." 

The Zuums crept from the back of the stable into the light, looking somewhat sheepish. The red one took a position in front of them. He stood with his neck a little straighter than his fellows, his head high. He was obviously ashamed that he got caught, but willing to accept the consequences. 

"I apologize, sir," the red Zuum said. "We were only going to rough the newcomer up a little, you know. But things got out of hand." 

"Hazing, eh?" Gene frowned as he stared at the Zuum. "Did Brom put you up to this for what he did to Inferno?" 

I started to speak, but again Swiftwind interrupted me. "I said, stay out of it." He whispered, in a voice only a Tiger could hear. 

"No, sir," the red Zuum said. "This was entirely my idea, and I accept all responsibility for our actions." 

"Are you sure?" Gene sounded as if he were trying to catch Brom in something. 

"It's been almost a month since that incident, sir. We'd all put it out of our minds..." 

"You know what the penalty is for damaging ranch property, don't you?" 

The Zuum swallowed. "Yes, sir." 

"Very well. Take these Zuums back to their stables," he said to the other men. "Make sure they are locked down. They are to stay locked in their stalls for at least a week. I'll take Crimson to solitary." 

Solitary? I didn't like the sound of that. But again, Swiftwind brushed me with his shoulder. I studied his face as he looked at me, and then said nothing. 

Frank appeared at the doorway, and then ran inside. "What's going on?" 

"Nothing serious," Gene told him. "A little hazing prank that got out of hand. Your Gray Wolf's all right." 

Frank knelt down next to me, looking me over. "You okay?" he asked me. 

"Actually, they bore the brunt of it. I'm pretty sure I hit that Dragon Zuum pretty hard. You might want to look in on him." 

"I'll check on him," Frank said. He gave me an odd glance, but then shook his head. "You've been scratched a bit, but it's nothing that won't heal. You might come by the infirmary tomorrow so I can put some salve on those cuts. Unless you like scars." He grinned at me. 

I shook my head, grinning back. "Okay, then." Frank looked back at my stall. "He can't sleep there tonight," he said to Gene. 

"We can move him to another stall, but one won't be ready until morning." 

"Would it be all right if I slept outside?" I asked. 

Gene looked at me. "It's unusual..." 

"I understand that. But I'm used to it. My first trainer really didn't have a lot of money, so I slept outside a lot." 

"He IS a Tiger," Frank added. "So you know he's not going anywhere." 

"I'll come back to the stable for breakfast in the morning." 

"All right then... You've got your night outside." 

* * * * *

I lay in the darkness, under the trees. I was tired, but it had taken me a while to calm down enough to fall back asleep. Even so, it felt like only a few minutes before I was awakened again. A shadow drifted across the moonlight, and I looked up, to see a figure winging its way across the lake. A Pixie, Sandy, it had to be. She coasted over to her rock, and fluttered down onto it. She sat there, staring at her feet. 

What was she doing out? I knew good and well we weren't supposed to be out at night, so she had to have snuck out. I hadn't seen her in a while, I'd been so busy. We hadn't really had a chance to talk since the last time we met at this lake. 

As she sat, silhoutted against the moonlight, I noticed that she was a little taller than before. Her body was longer, leaner, and there was just a bit of a curve to her chest. And there was something else, something wrong with the way she looked. I couldn't put my finger on it, but in the back of my mind there was a sense of foreboding, a feeling that things were not quite right. 

I suddenly found myself worried. Frank had said that she was being watched, all the time, for any sign of the self-hatred that had destroyed her predecessors. She was definately entering puberty. So where were these handlers? 

"Hey, Sandy... you okay?" 

Sandy leaped from the rock, startled by my voice. Her eyes were as wide as they could be, but as she recognized me, she relaxed. She settled back down onto the rock. "Hi, Steppenwolf," she said. "I didn't see you there." 

"I guess I blend into the shadows," I said. 

"What are you doing here?" 

I didn't want to worry her, so I decided not to mention the fight. "Frank gave me a night to myself, for good behavior. What are YOU doing here?" 

"Gene," she said. "I thought he'd left for the night, but he hadn't." 

That was the handler that had shown up to stop the fight, the one that had seemed so angry about being interrupted. "What was Gene doing at your stable?" I asked, but the answer occured to me even as I said it. 

"He and Molly sometimes spend the night together," Sandy said. Her voice was so emotionless, so matter of fact, that I shuddered. 

"Molly's... one of the Pixies." 

She nodded. 

There was a long, long, silence. "He hasn't... asked you to..." 

She shook her head. "Not yet. I don't think he likes me very much." 

"Thank God," I said. She was silent again. But there had been a tone, a sadness in her voice that I didn't like. 

"Sandy, you understand that you don't HAVE to do that, don't you? And that you don't HAVE to want him to like you..." 

She nodded. "I don't really like him. I don't really like any of them." 

I got up and walked over to her. "Sandy... you know, humans aren't like us. There are... male humans, and female humans. We're different. We're... well, what we are." 

"You can't waste your time wishing you were something you're not. And you certainly can't waste your time being something a human wishes you were. In the end... in the end, your friend Molly is just going to end up losing him." 

Sandy frowned. "But... She said that... she said that he loves her..." She finally said. 

I shrugged. "Maybe he does. And maybe... well, maybe he doesn't. Maybe he's just using her. I mean, even if he's not, and he still cares about her, loves her when she grows old, eventually..." 

"They'll never be able to raise a family together. They'll never even be able to TELL anyone how they feel. They'll have to hide it... for the rest of her life..." 

"But she loves him, too!" She put her hands over her ears. "And she really does! Why... why would she feel that way... if..." 

Her voice became quiet. "And why does it... make me feel... so alone..." 

"Would you rather life the rest of your life in loneliness?" I asked her. "Never able to touch anyone, or be touched? You have to take the bad with the good." 

She looked up at me, her eyes starting to glisten. "When I was young", I said, "Ralph once told me something. 'Humans and monsters have only one thing in common. Neither of us know why we're here. All we can try and do is live the best lives we can, while we still have time left. Every moment is precious.'" 

Sandy was quiet for a long time. Then she turned and wrapped her arms around my neck, tangling her hands in my fur. "Steppenwolf... you... you love me, don't you?" 

"Of course I do!" I told her. 

She sniffled, "But not in that way, huh?" 

I stepped back, nudged her under the chin so she had to look up at me. "There is no 'that way'. Either you accept someone the way they are, and try to make them happy, or you don't." 

She looked at me, confused. I sat down, then lay down, crossing my paws. I put my head down over them. "Lay down next to me," I said. 

She did so, curling up by my side, laying her head against my shoulder. "I am going to take care of you, and protect you, and make sure nothing ever happens to you," I told her. "I promise you that. You're going to live a good, long time, and I'm going to make sure you become the best Pixie/Henger you can be." 

"No matter what you may decide that's supposed to be..." 

I shifted to one side a little, to better shelter her against the coolness of the air, and then we fell asleep. 


	5. Growing Pains

  
"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 5  


  


"So you've lived here your whole life, then?" 

Swiftwind nodded. "There was another Tiger on the ranch before you. He was bought from another ranch, just like you were. As, I assume, was the Tiger that was Combined to make me." 

"Was your friend Combined?" 

The Dento shook his head. "No. Curtis doesn't like Tigers. He lived to be about eleven or twelve, and then..." 

"ELEVEN OR TWELVE!!!" I stared at him in shock. Ralph was the oldest Tiger I had even known, and he was five and a half. Master had told me I might live to seven, if I was lucky, but twelve years? 

Swiftwind laughed, though, at the expression on my face. "All the monsters on this ranch live a long time. They put something in our food." 

I looked back at the stable, and the silo of meal perched on one side of it. "That foul tasting stuff?" 

"Oh, yeah. It may taste awful, but it's got all sorts of stuff in it to make us live longer." 

We both turned as Lenny approached, bounding over to us. "Trainer say we gotta go. All monsters go." 

For some reason, Swiftwind's mood suddenly turned sour. He stood up. "I was wondering. I guess we'd better go." 

"What's going on?" 

He glanced at me. "You'll find out soon enough." 

The two Hares joined our handler as he approached the stable. Wordlessly, Swiftwind fell in behind them as the human gestured for us to follow. Even Lenny had fallen silent. We were led down the path between the stables, towards the main gate back to the human section. There, a few humans and a monster were standing on a wooden platform, inside a roped off area. 

I froze. The monster inside the little corral was the red Zuum from last night. I hesitated a moment longer, then, as the others threatened to leave me behind, I trotted to catch up. 

As we halted in front of the fenced off area, I struggled to fight down the rising sense of fear. The other monsters were also gathering around the spot. I noticed Inferno out of the corner of my eye. He was hanging back at the rear of a group of Dragons. 

Mr. Curtis was at the head of the platform, and he stood there, patiently, obviously waiting for all of the monsters to arrive. As each handler brought their group up, they continued on, past the ropes, and up to the platform. The monsters all remained on the ground, waiting. 

As soon as the last handler had joined him, Mr. Curtis turned to Gene. "What do you have to report?" he asked. 

"Last night, sir, a group of Zuums broke into stable C and tried to attack the Gray Wolf, Steppenwolf. They claim that this was part of a hazing ritual. In the battle, one of the Zuums set fire to the stall and destroyed it." 

Mr. Curtis stepped up to the Zuum. I noticed that his feet were chained together. I looked down at the ground, unable to bear any more. "Crimson, which of the Zuums started the fire?" 

"I accept responsibility for that, sir." 

"You will not tell me who started the fire?" 

"No, sir. I understand the penalty for damaging your property, sir, and I alone will accept that punishment." 

"Very well... due to the fact that the fire was an accident, I will reduce the usual punishment to ten lashes." 

I kept my head down. There was a moment's silence, and then the crack of a whip. I winced, turning my head further away from the platform. The sound came again, and again. I tried to shut it out, but couldn't. 

"It could have been worse," Swiftwind said, in that voice meant only for me. "The usual punishment is twenty-five lashes." 

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" 

"No... I suppose it isn't." 

I somehow managed to stand it until the whipping stopped. When I looked back up at the platform, Crimson bore a few welts, but there was no pain on his face. He simply stared straight ahead. I felt like I was going to be sick. 

"There's nothing you can do, Gray Wolf. This is the way this ranch keeps discipline. Without it, it would fall apart. And there's nothing you or I can do to change that." 

"Do you really believe that?" 

"I don't believe it... I know it." Swiftwind met my eyes. "And the truth is, so do you." 

I closed my eyes, and then turned away. As I started to walk back to the stable, I heard the voice of a Pixie off to my left. "Hey, look, the puppy can't take it." I looked up at her. She smirked at me, but it was Sandy, who was peeking around her, whose eyes I met. I could see the pain, the fear, the confusion in those glowing green eyes. 

I took off running for the trees. Behind me, I could hear Swiftwind, approaching the Pixies. "I'm glad SOMEONE'S still disgusted by this," he was telling them. "The truth is... I sometimes wonder why I'm NOT any more..." 

By the time I reached the other side of the forest, Sandy was already there, waiting for me beside the lake. I trotted slowly out of the bushes, to plop down tiredly on the bank. She settled down next to me, and put her arm around me. 

"That big Baku was worried about you," she said. 

"Baku? Oh, you mean Lenny," I guessed. I shuddered to think how this "discipline" had effected that dumb creature. 

"He sent me to find you. I said I had a feeling I knew where you'd go." 

I sighed. Then I looked up at Sandy. "YOU'RE still bothered by that, aren't you?!" I asked, staring at her intently. 

"Yeah, I guess so..." She looked frightened again. "I'd hate to ever have that happen to me..." 

"Not for you," I protested. "For him!" 

She looked at me. She was silent for a moment, studying my expression. "He was going to hurt you, maybe even kill you. Yet, you can feel sorry for him?" 

"It wasn't his fault." I shook my head, torn between anger and revulsion. "It was Brom and Inferno that put him up to it. Yet he bore the punishment himself, rather than implicate them." 

I looked back at Sandy. "That wasn't justice. That was a warning. That was Crimson being used as an example, for you, for me, for every other monster on this ranch." 

Her expression hardened. Sandy stared at the ground, frowning. After a few moments, she brought an arm up to her chest, and started scratching her forearm with her other hand. She looked down at it, as she started scratching harder. "Itches..." she muttered. 

Later, I would realize that I should have paid more attention to her. At the time, though, I was too occupied with my own thoughts. "What kind of a place is this?" I asked, to no one in general. "I couldn't have dreamt up a place like this in my worst nightmares!" 

Sandy looked up at me, a bit startled. She then wrapped her arms around me again. "It's okay, Steppenwolf. It'll... it'll be okay..." 

* * * * *

Not three days after the battle with the Zuums, I finally got to see my first IMa tournament. I was entered in the A class, and swept it easily, the opposition not even up to Inferno's caliber. The big fights with the last two opponents were being saved for the next day, but I had watched them fight, and didn't think I would have any trouble with them. 

I stood in the passageway that led under the stands to the arena floor, watching the Baku, Lenny. It was interesting to me to see another canine monster, but one that was neither smart nor fast. Lenny was large, slow, ponderous, and stupid, but he was no pushover as a fighter. His bulk made him dangerous, and protected him well from damage. 

His opponent in this battle, unfortunately, was a Naga. Like Inferno, he seemed to have been bred to make money in this class, because he was far more powerful than the others had been. Lenny had gotten a few gashes across his side from when he got too close to the snake beast, and it was now toying with him. 

There was something sadistic about the way the Naga fought, as if it enjoyed hurting other monsters. That could be the case with Nagas, I had found in the past, but most arenas had rules to prevent fights from becoming TOO violent. The judges weren't calling any of this Naga's fouls, however, they were pretty much letting him get away with whatever he wanted to do. 

"The crowd likes him," Swiftwind commented. 

I glanced back over my shoulder. "The Naga?" 

He nodded. "His trainer's friends with the Arena owner. He's a regular here. He's a real show off for the crowd. But he's not fun to be in the ring with. I told Lenny to keep away from him, but he's not listening." 

Lenny charged in for a head butt, but the Naga dodged it easily. As he slipped past, he slashed the canine's sensitive nose open with his claws. Lenny howled in pain. 

"Damn it, he's not listening." 

Fortunately, at that moment, the audience began counting down the ten seconds to the end of the fight. A gong rang, and the Naga backed away, laughing, a nasty, hissing sound. Lenny lumbered back to the passage, his trainer meeting him there. He was led past us, the trainer pressing a towel against his nose to soak up the blood. 

Out in the arena, the judge was declaring the Naga the winner. It bugled out a victory cry. "One of these days, I'm gonna tear that Naga apart," Swiftwind said. 

After leading the victorious Naga and his trainer out of the arena, the judge stepped out onto the floor again. "Ladies and Gentlemen," he called out, "This is an D class tournament. Unlike our other tournaments for this festival, this has been an Official Tournament, for the IMa Grade D. The winner will be progressing to grade C, and will then be able to compete in B and C grade tournaments." 

"In this corner, from the Westwood Ranch, we have a returning favorite, trying for a second time at the IMa Grade D cup. Say hello to the Joker, Deathedge!" 

"And in this corner, from the Curtis Ranch, a newcomer to the arena who has swept this category. She's a unique type, you'll probably never see another like her, the Pixie/Henger, Sandy!" 

I leaned over to get a better look. She was getting a smattering of applause, nothing like what the Joker had gotten. But her battles so far seemed to have won her some respect. I had been a bit surprised when Curtis entered her in a D grade tournament. But then I learned that in the IMa area monsters are allowed to compete above their class. 

So far she had done well. Her training had paid off, and she was quick, and confident. After seeing that Naga toy with Lenny, however, I was getting really worried. Although she was obviously trying, there wasn't a lot of power behind her attacks. And she hadn't fired her Rocket Fist since that first day. Even though we had tried to talk to her about it, she refused to use the attack again. 

As the gong sounded, Sandy took to the air. She circled around the Joker, sizing him up. He swung at her a few times with his sickle, but then stopped and waited for her to come to him. He wasn't going to be an easy victory. 

Sandy gathered a Lightning Bolt in her hand and blasted him with it. The Joker leaped forward, through the blinding flash, and slashed at her. Sandy leaped backward, but his blade had cut a hole in front of her bathing suit. The crowd cheered, smelling blood. 

Sandy, however, unfurled her wings and shot upward. She arched over the Joker and landed behind him. Firing off two Rays in rapid succession, she hit him with both. Then she dodged as he came at her again. He missed a few times, but then she stumbled, and he caught her with the backside of the weapon. Sandy clutched at her upper arm, as the smaller blade cut into her skin. 

"Her legs too short." 

"What?" I looked back at Lenny, who had come up behind us. His nose had been bandaged, but otherwise he looked fine. 

"She fall down. Her legs too short." 

It was then that I realized what had been wrong with Sandy, the last time I saw her, at the lake. Her legs and arms were out of proportion with the rest of her body. Her body was long, skinny, developing into the body of a young woman, but her arms and legs were still growing at the same rate as those of a child. 

The Joker attacked. Sandy stumbled again as she tried to dodge. The blade cut into her leg, deeply. Sandy cried out in pain, falling to the ground. Deathedge moved in quickly, swinging his scythe up for the death blow. Sandy brought up an arm, as if to shield her face, but then she extended it, pointing her fist at the Joker. 

There was the explosion of sound, the blast of flame, and Sandy's fist shot out, striking the scythe as it came down at her. It snapped the head of the weapon right off, sending it spinning across the arena. 

As the startled Joker watched its weapon fly out of its hands, Sandy rolled back to her feet. She kicked the Joker across the head, sending it reeling back, then stuck out her arm. Her fist, returning, inverted itself and reconnected to her stump. Then she began to pummel the Joker, slapping his masked face back and forth with her iron hands. 

Finally, as the ten second countdown began, she ran back, and grabbed the Joker's blade. Cradling it against her chest, with a look that said "Take it from me if you dare", Sandy stood there, panting. Then the countdown ended, and the gong sounded to end the fight. 

"She did good," Swiftwind said. "That last series of strikes will probably buy her points with the judges." 

I nodded. There was a lot of commotion from the crowd. Some of them were chanting the Joker's name, but there was a lot of applause for Sandy, too. Finally, the judge returned to the center of the arena and addressed the crowd. 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, our judges have made their decision. For damage inflicted, the point goes to Deathedge. For accuracy, the point goes to Sandy. So the point for strategy will determine the winner. And that winner is..." 

"Sandy!" I cheered for her, as did Lenny and Swiftwind. Sandy just stood there, though. I expected her to jump up and down happily, but she just looked stunned, clutching the Joker's scythe head to her chest. Oddly, she wouldn't let go of it, and carried it with her as she came down the passage past us. The Joker's owner had brought him a new scythe, and they left through the other entrance. I assumed that they had let her keep it as a trophy. 

"That was some amazing attack she had there," Swiftwind commented. 

"I think it scares her to use it," I said, worried. "I hope she's all right..." 

"She all fuzzy-headed. Lenny remember when Lenny first fight, Lenny get fuzzy-headed, too." 

"Yeah. She's just overwhelmed, that's all. She'll feel better once she gets back to the ranch." 

I looked up at Lenny. "What do you think of Sandy, Lenny?" 

"She nice, like swift one and silver one. Pixies mean to Lenny. But she not mean to no one." 

I smiled. "She is at that." 

"Hey, you guys, come look!" A blue Hare stuck his head into the passage. "The Pixie/Henger just tried to cut her arms off!" 

"WHAT!!!" I charged down the passage into the infirmary. Sandy was being restrained by three large humans. Two of them were holding her arms, the other was pressing her up against the wall. She was struggling to get free. The Joker's scythe head lay on the floor in front of them. 

There were a series of long gashes across each of Sandy's arms. They were perfectly straight, cutting deep into the material of her Henger shell. Again, there was that resemblance to soft clay, slashed with a knife to form narrow, V-shaped trenches. Except that these cuts couldn't just be smoothed over to close them. 

"Let me go!" Sandy yelled, still struggling. Electricity was starting to play around her fingertips, but the men were wearing leather gloves. One of them put his hands over her eyes to keep Sandy from seeing a target to aim her attacks at. She tossed her head, trying to free herself. 

Frank burst into the room. "What's going on!" he roared. 

"She sat down with the weapon, sir," one of the men said, "right after the battle. For a moment she was just holding it, you know, so we didn't think anything of it. Then she started using the blade to cut into her arms. I could tell that it was hurting her, but... she just didn't seem to know what she was doing." 

"Dammit, let me go!" Sandy repeated. The handler released her eyes as Frank examined her, and Sandy looked at him. "What is the problem! I was just fiddling around, now let me go!" 

Frank stroked Sandy's hair. "Look, I know you're scared, but you're just going to have to trust me. I don't think you're in control of yourself right now. But everything will be fine, just as soon as I run a few tests." 

He stepped away from her. "Take her to the cart. Make sure she can't get to any weapons or anything like that." 

"What is the problem with everyone!" Sandy yelled, as she was dragged away. "I'm not even bleeding! What is the damned problem!" 


	6. Calm Before The Storm

  
"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 6  


  


I spent most of the next day worrying about Sandy. She and Frank had been sent back to the ranch, but no one would tell me anything about her. And I couldn't leave the tournament, I still had battles to fight. Curtis accepted Sandy's trophy at the ceremony, for her E Grade win, and smugly answered questions when the other breeders asked him about her. Some had heard about what had happened afterwards, but Curtis dismissed it. "It was nothing," he said. "You shouldn't listen to rumors." 

Somehow, though, I managed to keep my mind on the tournament enough to take A class. It was actually more difficult than I had expected. As with Inferno, and the Naga that Lenny had fought, the current champions were actually stronger than their rank. But I was used to fighting monsters stronger than myself. 

I actually let my last opponent beat me, knowing we'd face off again in a tie breaker round. With the knowledge I'd gained from our first fight, and a little time to catch my second wind, I was able to defeat him. Curtis looked angry when I lost, but when I turned around and won the second match, he seemed happy enough with that. 

When I got back to the ranch, everything seemed to be okay. Sandy had been sent back to her stable, and hadn't shown any more signs of wanting to hurt herself. Frank and the other handlers kept a close eye on her for a few days, as did I, but she seemed fine. 

Within a week, Curtis had arranged for me to attend another tournament, this one far to the North. I had a week to train, and then I would be away from the ranch for another two weeks, travelling to the tournament, and then returning after the event was over. I was worried about Sandy, so I took her aside. 

"When I come back," I said to her, "I want you to be waiting for me by the gate. I want you to promise you'll be there." 

She hugged me around the neck, and promised. I didn't tell her why I made her make that promise. 

When I returned, sure enough, she was right there waiting for me. She jumped up and down, waving, and as I jumped off the cart she ran up to me. "I've got a surprise for you," she said. "Meet me after dinner and I'll show it to you." 

"What is it?" 

"You'll find out!" She grinned. "You know the place. After dinner!" She turned and ran a few steps, then spread her wings and fluttered away. 

"I sure am glad you thought of that," Frank said, as he met me on the other side of the gate. "She's been really excited all week. You've really..." He patted the back of my head. "You've really given her a reason to live, Steppenwolf." 

I didn't say anything. "I think it's her friendship with you that's gotten her this far," he added. "I know I've never thanked you for that, but... thank you." 

"There's no need," I told him. "She's my friend. And you mean a lot to her, too..." 

He nodded. "Well, let's get you to the Lab and have you a look over. Did everything go okay?" 

I shrugged. "The usual, a few cuts and bruises. I worked off most of the soreness on the way back." 

"Sure. I still want to look at you anyway, just to be sure." 

"I understand." 

We walked along for a few minutes. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you," I said. 

"Oh?" 

"Yeah... why is it I haven't been frozen yet? I mean... Swiftwind told me that you have some special food here that makes monsters live longer, but..." 

I paused for a moment. "Well... Monsters just don't live very long. I know that, it doesn't bother me. Why are you wasting... well, why are you wasting the time I have, however short or long it is, on these A class tourneys? I could be making a LOT more for you in S class." 

"Not in the short run." Frank looked down at me. "Steppenwolf, this ranch takes a LOT of money to run. It's not like your old ranch, where a single S class win could last your trainer... oh, I don't know, probably until the next S class tourney. We need to bring in a LOT of money to run this place. So we have to send our monsters... well... all over the country!" 

We had reached the Lab, and I followed Frank inside. "Are there a lot of ranches that think that way?" I asked him. 

"A few. Why?" 

"Oh, I was just thinking that the ranks here seem a little tougher than I'm used to. You may all be, in a sense, cancelling each other out." I grinned. 

"It's possible. It's been getting harder and harder to compete with the other big ranches. Their monsters get stronger and stronger, and ours have to get stronger to keep pace..." 

He frowned. "Meanwhile, the smaller ranches can't really keep up. They stay out of the big tournaments, and stick with the small town events." 

"But we've been going to those, too," I put in. "Like the one that I went to this time." 

He nodded. "I sometimes wonder if I'm doing the right thing. It's all turning into... It's all turning into a business. I became a tech so I could make the world a better place... create monsters no one had ever seen before. Instead I'm helping people like Mr. Curtis get rich." 

He was silent for a moment, then he shrugged. "Okay, let's get you up on the table." 

I jumped up and laid down on the table, folding my paws. He studied me for a few moments, finally concentrating on a stab wound I had gotten from a Nya. I drew in my breath as the contact send a shooting pain through my side. 

"Is that a fairly deep wound?" He asked me. 

I gritted my teeth. "I didn't think so at the time, but it sure feels like it now." 

"Looks like it's beginning to fester. I'd better put something on it." 

He walked over to a cabinet and brought out a jar filled with some sort of thick leaves. He started grinding some of them up with a mortar and pestle. "You look fine except for that," he said. "You didn't take much damage, I don't think." 

I heard Sandy's voice from outside in the main part of the Lab. "Frank? Are you in here?" 

"Over here, Sandy." 

She poked her head in the door. "Hello, Steppenwolf. Are you okay?" 

"Just fine. He's just checking me out. What's wrong?" 

"Well... I dunno." She stepped into the room, putting a hand against her ribcage, right under her breast. "My chest hurts." 

Frank looked up from his mortar and pestle. "In that area, huh?" he asked, noticing where her hand was. 

She nodded. "Has it been hurting for a while?" He asked. 

"Yeah..." she nodded again. "Off and on. It's been just kinda like a dull ache, but a few minutes ago it was like a sharp pain." 

"It just sounds like your body's changing, Sandy. Nothing to worry about." 

She looked down at herself. That night when I had seen her, at the lake, she had only just started to develop. But that was almost a month ago, and now it was obvious that she was growing up. The tan colored suit that she had been wearing had been replaced with a larger one, cut a little differently, and under it her breasts were quite a bit rounder. 

With a start, I realized that Sandy's arms and legs were once again in proportion with her body. That sense of foreboding crept over me again, but I shook my head. This was a good sign, not a bad one. 

"Let's try this, Sandy." Frank left the medicine he was making up for me to fetch another jar from his collection of strange-looking leaves and roots. This one was full of some sort of brown powder, and he took the jar over to the water pump. Filling a cup with water, he then measured out some of the powder and put it in the cup. 

"Drink this." Sandy took the cup and drank from it, but then made a face. 

"Ghack!" She protested. "It tastes horrible!" 

"I know, but it'll make the pain go away. You have to drink it all." 

Grimacing, she managed to drink the rest of the water. She wiped her mouth, then slowly her frown faded. 

"Hey... I do feel better..." 

"I told you." Frank put a hand on her shoulder. "Now, if you have any more pains you tell me. Okay?" 

"Okay." She grinned, then waved at me. "Bye, Steppenwolf. Tonight, remember?" 

Frank watched her as she left the Lab. Then he walked back over to the worktable. "I wonder what she has planned?" 

"I dunno. I'll find out soon enough." 

"What did she mean by 'You know the place'?" 

I grinned at him. "There are some secrets Sandy and I keep to ourselves," I said. 

"Understood." He laughed, then picked up a cloth and placed the herbs that he had ground up in it. "Now then... it's your turn." 

He brought the cloth over to me, then pressed it against my side. I drew in my breath, as the gooey paste made the wound sting. "That just means it's working," he said. 

He began to wrap a bandage around me to hold the cloth in place. "You should sit here for at least an hour, and then leave this on until after dinner tonight. I'd prefer if you slept with it on, but if it's not comfortable you can pull it off. Just be careful, without any hands you won't be able to put it back on again if you work it loose." 

"Okay," I said, looking down at the bandage. The sting had already faded to a sort of throbbing, and it actually felt sort of soothing. 

"Where did you learn about all of this stuff, anyway?" I nodded at the cabinet. 

He looked sort of proud of himself. "Much of it has been through my own research. I've done research with various herbs and plants, looking for those with medicinal effects. Of course, I learned a lot from my father... he was a doctor, a human doctor, but he knew a few medicines that worked on monsters as well. I built on his knowledge, and that of other doctors around the continent." 

"The thing is, most Labs have all of this equipment for Combining and Freezing monsters." He gestured at his own machinery in the bigger room outside. "Most of it comes from the Ancient time, or is based on that lost knowledge. Most Lab techs don't have any idea how any of it works. Oh, they can fix it if it breaks, but they couldn't build something to do something else." 

"Me, I'm more interested in HOW the devices work than whether or not they work." 

"So, you've been able to find out how they work?" 

Frank grinned at me, widely. "Nope... not a bit of it!" 

* * * * *

I met Sandy at the lake. She ran over to me, excited, but her face fell as she noticed the bandage. 

"Oh... I thought you said you weren't hurt." She frowned at me, as if I'd lied to her. 

"It's not bad. Really. It's just to help it heal faster." 

"Well... I guess you can't go in the water, then." Sandy looked positively dejected. Inexplicably, tears came to her eyes, but she brushed them away. 

I nudged her. "Hey. Frank just said that I had to wear it for a few hours. And I'm sure he'd say that I should wash out the wound good. So let's just take off the bandage, and put it aside here on the bank. We can put it back on me after we get through." 

She looked up, her eyes glittering as she stared at me. Then she clapped her hands. "Okay!" 

Sandy set about unwrapping the bandage as I watched her. "Now be careful not to let the stuff fall on the ground. I know Frank wouldn't like THAT." 

"I'll be careful," she said. She pressed the cloth against my side as she unwound the last of the bandage. Then she folded the cloth with the medicine on the inside and wrapped the bandage around it. 

She set the bandage down, then studied the little bit of the salve that had remained on my coat. She touched it, then rubbed her fingertips together. 

"Frank sure does know all sorts of wierd medicine things, doesn't he?" 

"He does at that." 

She grinned again. "Okay, in the water," she said, shoving on my side. 

I waded out into the lake, while she walked over to her rock and picked something up. She then joined me in the water, keeping whatever she had picked up behind her back so I couldn't see it. 

"You remember you told me you used to get your fur brushed, after you washed it, on your old ranch?" 

I nodded. She brought out a brush from behind her back. "I borrowed it from Molly!" She said happily. 

"She doesn't mind you using her hairbrush on me?" 

Sandy giggled. "She doesn't know! I told her it was for me." 

"You... you shouldn't have done that." 

"Oh, she'll never know! I'll clean out the brush once I've used it. And besides, your fur is so smooth and soft, I'm sure it won't make any difference." 

She looked at the brush for a moment. "I'd use my own brush... if I had one..." 

Then she shoved at my side again. "Okay, Wolfie. Roll around." 

I laid down in the water and rolled over to get my coat good and wet. Then Sandy started to run her hands through my fur, to dislodge the dirt. This was far easier than rolling to get myself clean, and it felt better, too. I smiled at her as she ruffled my mane. 

Then she started to brush my fur. Little tufts of silver gray started to float away from us, mats and tangles of shed hair that had gotten caught in my coat. I winced as she passed over the stab wound, but she muttered a "Sorry" and was careful not to brush that spot again. 

We were both quiet for a long time. I was enjoying the sensation of having my fur brushed again. It has been too long since the last time. I couldn't help thinking of my Master, and his ranch, of growing up, with all of his monsters as my friends. 

Sandy seemed to sense my thoughts, because she asked, "Tell me about your Master..." 

"He was a nice man. Everything I am I owe to him." 

"What was his name?" 

"Blayyde. I don't remember his first name. I don't think I ever heard it. He was always Master to me." 

"It must have been nice..." 

"It was." I paused a moment, remembering. "We had an old, wooden barn, sort of falling apart. The floor was just dirt. But it was warm, and it felt good. There was a stream, too. Not a lake, like this, but a little brook, a little shallower than this, with little pebbles in the bottom." 

"He was so proud of my coat. I think he was prouder of it than I was." 

"What kind of monsters were there?" 

"Lots of Tigers. Ralph, he was my mentor. He taught me what it meant to be a Tiger. And there was a Mint. She was a lot like you." I looked up at her. "Asked a lot of questions..." 

"There was even a dragon." I smiled at the memory. "Dragons look a little different over there. And this one was a baby. Little thing, with a little round head, on a long neck. He'd trip over his feet..." 

I paused a moment. "I wonder what happened to all of them..." 

Sandy had been silent, brushing my hair, but all of a sudden she stopped. She put a hand against my side. I looked back at her, and she was looking at herself, as if puzzled. But then suddenly she tensed up. She let out a scream, dropping the brush, as she put both of her hands against her chest. 

"Sandy... what's wrong?" 

She started to say something, but then doubled over, crying out in pain. She slipped in the water and fell, with a splash. The water wasn't much more than knee deep, but she still struggled, for a few moments, to get her face out of the water, gasping for breath. She rolled over, and sat up, her hands clutching tightly at that spot under her breasts. 

But then she cried out again, putting one hand to the inside of her other arm. She screamed again, then began to claw at the flesh, right where it joined with the shell of her Henger half. I reached down and grabbed the back of her suit in my teeth, and dragged her out of the water. 

By the time I got her out of the water, she had begun pulling at her arm, as if trying to rip it off. I threw myself on top of her, pinning her down. "Stop it! What are you doing?" 

"IT HURTS!" She screamed. "Make it stop! It hurts!" 

Somehow, I managed to shove her arms apart, and pin them over her head. She struggled, trying to get free. "What hurts? Your arms?" 

She nodded, blinking away tears. She was in agony, I could see it in her face. She arched her back, and for a moment I could have sworn I saw movement under her bathing suit. 

"Sandy, listen to me! You've got to fight this! Whatever this is, it's probably what killed the other Pixies! Trying to tear your arms off isn't going to solve the problem. It's only going to make it worse!" 

"But it hurts so BAD! Oh, God, I can't STAND it!!!" 

Sandy screamed again, and this time her legs began to thrash around underneath me. I leaned up, thinking that she meant to try and smash her legs as well. And that's when I saw it. 

Right at the top of her hip, just below the line of her bathing suit, an angry, red welt had appeared on her skin. The welt split open, a trickle of blood dripping away from it, and something forced itself out from inside her body. It was a curved plate of tan material, just like the covering over her arms. 

Sandy screamed louder, and the covering inched its way down over her hips. Another had joined it on the other side, and the two of them crept down slowly. The wounds in Sandy's skin split open even further, spreading down towards her crotch, as more of the two plates emerged from inside her. 

I was afraid of what Sandy would do if I let her go, but I was more afraid of what was happening to her. "Sandy... I've gotta go get Frank. I'm gonna have to leave you here. I don't want to... I'm afraid your going to hurt yourself." I looked down at her hips. "Worse. But I've got to go get help." 

"No." Sandy was in tears, throwing her head from side to side. "Please don't let them know about this place..." 

"I'll just bring Frank..." 

"No, he won't... he won't be able to help me alone... he'll need..." She groaned between clenched teeth. "... help." 

"Sandy..." 

"Let... me up... I'll... you can carry me... back to the Lab." 

"Are you sure you can hold on?" 

She cried out, shoving against me. "HURRY!!! I can't... hold out... much longer!!!" 

I let her up, and she pulled herself up me, inch by inch, with her arms. Finally, she straddled my back, her legs limp on either side of me, her hands tangled into my fur. Another wave of pain surged through her, and her hands twisted, her grip causing me to cry out as well. 

"Go!" She breathed. I took off running though the underbrush, careful not to dislodge her, but moving as quickly as I could towards the Lab.


	7. Changes

Warning: This chapter contains violent imagery which may be too intense for some readers. While I don't think it exceeds the PG-13 rating, you can skip down to the end if it gets too disturbing. 

---------------------------------------------------------------

  
"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 7  


  


"Frank! Come quick!" I charged into the Lab. 

Frank ran out of a back room. He apparently had heard the fear in my voice. "What's wrong?" 

"Something's wrong with Sandy." 

"What?" 

"I... I can't describe it. You'll just have to see for yourself." 

A Golem stepped into the Lab, Sandy clenched in his gigantic fist. He had met me at the edge of the forest, attracted by Sandy's screams. At that very moment, Sandy had lost her grip on me, and tumbled off my back into the grass. The Golem had picked her up and carried her along behind me, while I ran ahead to warn Frank. 

Sandy was screaming and writhing in agony. The Golem carried her past me as Frank directed him towards one of the labs. The Golem put her down on the table, and Frank leaned over to examine her. He immediately noticed the plates that were growing out of her hips. 

"What is this?" He wondered. 

"They just started growing out of her," I told him. "Sandy was complaining of pains in her chest again. Then they apparently spread to her arms. She started trying to tear her arms off, but then... THAT started growing out of her hips." 

Frank lifted her arm. I hadn't noticed when I'd had her pinned down, because her elbows were towards me. But on the inside of her arm, where the elbow bent, her skin was red and angry. Cables had begun to snake out of her forearm, and into the skin around her bicep. 

"What the..." I commented. 

"She had a couple of these cables connecting her Henger section to her body before, but apparently now it's sending out more of them. I wonder if..." 

Before he could finish, Sandy screamed, and twisted her arm out of Frank's grasp. She started trying to claw at herself again, and Frank tried to grab her. In response, she grabbed him by the shirt, and flung him across the room. He hit the wall, and somehow managed to catch himself from falling to the floor. 

"Stop her!" Frank yelled. The Golem brought his massive hand down on top of Sandy, pinning her. "Get some manacles!" Frank yelled, to some of the handlers that had wandered in. 

"Can't you just tie her down?" I asked. 

"She'll just break rope. You saw what she did to me..." 

As he walked back over to her, Sandy looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to..." 

"I know." He patted her head. She closed her eyes, then tensed as the pain flooded through her again. She gritted her teeth, trying to keep from crying out, but she only held out for a few seconds. I winced at the intensity of her scream. 

The handlers ran in with chains and strapped her hands down to the table. They then pinned down her legs. Frank had turned back to his cabinet and had started to mix up more of his herbs. "You," he said, to a handler. "Put something in her mouth." 

"What?" 

He glanced around and found some sort of measuring scale with a wooden balance beam. He grabbed the wooden part and handed it to the man. "So she doesn't bite her tongue off!" 

I stood up, with my paws on the edge of the table, so I could see her better. Sandy looked at me, but then the pain made her look away. She was tossing her head from side to side, thrashing about on the table. And although her screams ended when the handler put the wooden stick in her mouth, she still groaned and gnashed her teeth. 

A puddle of blood appeared on her suit, spreading away from the middle of her belly. "FRANK!!!" I yelled. 

Frank turned back and saw the blood. More of it was appearing on her stomach, soaking into the fabric of her suit. Frank grabbed a knife and began to cut the suit off of her. 

Sandy whined, obviously embarrassed, but none of us saw what we were expecting to see. Sandy's breasts were covered by curved growths of the tan material, which was forcing its way out between her ribs. They fit the curve of her chest exactly, both protecting and supporting her. 

And her Henger Eye... the green gem had emitted cables, which were visibly burrowing their way under her skin. There was one large one that went down between her breasts. Two more went up, towards her neck. More wounds had opened up, there, the soft and delicate skin ripped open by the movement underneath. 

The skin over her shoulder blades had also split open, and more of the tan covering was growing up and outward, over her round shoulders. "It's like bone..." I muttered. 

Frank continued to cut open the bathing suit with his knife, revealing more and more of her belly. There was movement there, just under the skin, and it was making me sick to watch it. The blood that I had seen was coming from wounds, all over her stomach, more and more of which were opening with each second. The damage was getting worse, and worse, as Frank continued to cut downward towards her crotch. Finally, the last of the cloth fell away, revealing her hips -- where there nothing left of her flesh at all. 

Nothing, that is, but cables, and wires, and small bits of machinery, writhing around inside her. I ran out of the room, and out of the Lab, and lost most of my dinner onto the grass. 

* * * * *

I lay by the table for hours, as Frank as the other men struggled to save her. Sandy passed out, thankfully, although she continued to convulse, as the battle raged inside her body. Curtis came in and asked about her, and Frank gave him a terse reply. He said that he didn't know if Sandy would survive, and ordered Curtis and all the other gawkers out of the Lab. 

He didn't mention me, though, and no one moved me. 

Finally, Sandy's condition seemed to stabilize. Her thrashing stopped, and the damage that was being done to her halted its spread over her body. Frank worked on her for a while longer, but he was exhausted. Finally, he knelt down next to me. 

"I've done all I can," He said. "Call me if anything happens." 

"I will." 

I lay there on the floor, almost dozing off myself, and then I heard her voice. She was talking to herself, delirious. Her voice was low, hoarse, almost so quiet that I couldn't hear her. 

"Leave me alone. Stop talking to me." 

She continued to toss and turn for a long time, crying out from time to time. But I didn't know what to do for her. I just lay there, listening to her begging whatever it was she was hearing to leave her alone. 

"'Teppenwuf...'" 

I put my paws up on the table. 

"I'm here." 

The skin of her stomach had been completely eaten away. I could see her ribs, exposed, sticking out into the air. There was some sort of structure there, a framework, where her belly used to be. I wondered if it had always been there. A black ooze had spread upward, from under her hip plates, to cover the organs inside of her body. It came up almost to her breasts, still moving, seething, the battle still raging on underneath it. 

"I... hurt..." Her voice was weak, breathy. Tears were running down her cheeks. Her whole body was dripping with sweat, and I could smell the pungent scent of the medicines that Frank had spread over her wounds. 

"I know." 

"It won't leave... me alone..." 

"What won't leave you alone?" 

"The voice... in my head..." 

She tensed, gritting her teeth, then collapsed again. "I'm so hot..." 

I put a paw to her forehead. She was burning up. 

"Leave me alone... why won't it leave me alone? ... let me sleep..." 

She tossed her head, and another tear rolled down her face. "It's hot... if only... it would let up... for just a minute... let me sleep..." 

I stroked her face for a moment, then took a breath. Gently, I breathed across her body, letting the air chill, not much, but enough. She sighed as the cool air passed over her, relaxing. I breathed over her again, a cloud of ice forming, and it rolled down over her body, circling. Sandy sighed, her head rolled to one side, and her breathing became gentle and more even. 

I stayed there with her all night, keeping her body cool with my breath, watching over her. 

* * * * *

When I awoke, I was at first frightened that Sandy was not with me. As I took a look around, however, I realized that I was in a different room in the Lab. Taking a deep breath, to try and calm my racing heart, I got up and trotted out of the door. It took me only a few seconds to get my bearings and return to the room that Sandy was in. 

I found Frank there, watching over her. She was still asleep, her arms and legs still chained wide apart, but she seemed relaxed, peaceful in her sleep. As I stood there in the door, Frank raised his head. Wiping the sleep from his eyes, with the back of his hand, he turned to look at me. 

"What time is it?" he asked. 

I glanced back towards the double doors that led outside. The intensity of the light outside told me that it was near midday. "I'm not sure," I said. "Probably early afternoon." 

I stared at him for a long moment. "Why didn't you... why didn't you let me stay with her?" 

"You sleep too lightly." He grinned. "Every little noise she made would wake you up. You didn't need that. I took you into another room so you could get some sleep." 

"I don't even remember..." I looked at her. "But at least she got some sleep." 

He nodded. "She seems to be over the worst of it. I think it's over. It's... it's changed her. But I think it's over." 

I put my forepaws on the table so I could look at her. That horrible, gaping wound on her belly was gone. The black ooze had hardened, forming a flexible covering. It was marked with streaks of red, like blood vessels or scars. That skeletal structure, the bracing that I had seen inside her belly, was now on the outside of her skin. 

Her neck, too had given way to that black material. The cables stood out like tendons, running from her shoulders up into her head. I wondered what those cables carried. Did they carry blood, food, up to her brain? Or... did she no longer have... no, I shook my head, to force that thought away. 

Frank had begun releasing the straps on her arms. As if his touch had awakened her, Sandy's head began to move, lifting slowly from the hard surface of the table. She moaned, slightly, and then her eyes fluttered and opened. 

"Unit SD-dash-7784 activated." 

Sandy's eyes widened in shock. "WHAT THE F*** DID I SAY THAT FOR?!!!" 

Frank turned to look at her. "Don't panic, Sandy. That's... that's something Hengers sometimes say." 

"DO YOU MEAN I'M GONNA HAVE TO SAY THAT EVERY TIME I WAKE UP?" 

He stroked her arm, trying to calm her down. "I don't know, Sandy. I... don't know." 

But Sandy looked startled, her eyes once again growing wide. "No... I can turn it off." 

"You can?" 

"I can... alter... the... startup message. Or turn it off." She swallowed. 

"How do you know that?" 

"I... don't know." Her voice trembled. 

Frank turned back to her arm, freeing it. He then released the other, and helped Sandy sit up. She stared down at the table, holding one arm in the other, rubbing her wrist. 

Frank moved down to the bottom of the table and undid the straps that held Sandy's legs. Then he stepped back, as she turned and sat on the edge of the table. Frank stroked her hair. She seemed to relax at the touch, to lean into it. "I... I'm hearing... something..." 

"What?" He asked her. 

"I don't understand what it's saying. Something about... systems status." 

"Is it the voice you were hearing before?" I asked her. 

She nodded. "What voice?" Frank asked, looking at me. 

"She was hearing voices, last night." 

Sandy put both hands over her ears, shutting her eyes. "It's asking me questions. It won't stop!" 

"What questions?" 

"'What are you? What is your function? Please explain the purpose of the physiological imbalances.'" 

I looked at Frank, but he just shrugged. 

"What's speaking? Ask it who it is." 

"Operating system of unit SD-dash-7784. Integration with organic neurological system has been completed." 

Sandy burst into tears. "What am I saying?" 

"It's all right, Sandy. It's all right." I put a paw on her leg. "Sandy... let me speak to it. Go ahead and let it speak to me, through you." 

She was silent, so I addressed it. "Please explain why you attempted to destroy yourself." 

"This unit was malfunctioning." Sandy's head came up. Her lips trembled, as understanding sank in, understanding of words that we had yet to hear. She broke down crying, cradling her head in her hands. 

"Let him... it... speak, Sandy. Don't fight it." 

Sandy nodded, still sobbing. "This unit was malfunctioning," she said. "It was releasing chemicals, which caused the organic components to begin growing at a greatly accellerated rate, and in a chaotic fashion. This unit attempted to regain control by destroying the organic components responsible for generating the chemicals." 

"That was no malfunction," Frank said. "They were required for your... organic components... to transform into a stronger and more useful form." 

"This unit understands that now," Sandy said. Although her voice was slightly muffled by her hands and her sobs, it was still calm and matter of fact. "The inorganic system has begun to try and replace the function of the organic components that were destroyed." 

Frank looked at me. "A truce?" 

"... a truce." She said. 

"What is the purpose of this?" He tapped the covering over Sandy's right breast. 

"The organic portion of the system contained a number of inefficiencies and vulnerabilities. The system has attempted to repair that." 

"But you stopped." 

"The damage to the organic components was threatening a system-wide shutdown." The voice paused, for just a moment. "This unit is not programmed for self-destruction." 

Sandy sobbed into her hands, and it was the only sound in the quiet of the Lab for a long time. 

* * * * *

The day passed slowly. I just had returned to my stable for the noontime meal when Frank ran up to me. "Steppenwolf!" He shouted. "I need your help!" 

"What's wrong?" 

"Somehow Curtis convinced Gene to put Sandy on the Dodge Bags." He said. "I only just found out." 

"What! She could get killed!" 

"I know! She's in no shape for training! I may need you to to talk to her, she may have convinced herself that she's ready when she's not." 

That wasn't why he wanted me with him, and I knew it. He was afraid to confront Curtis alone. "I'll take care of her, don't worry. And you can explain it to Mr. Curtis." 

We ran towards the training grounds. The Dodge Bags were three large sandbags, suspended from a scaffold, over a set of short posts set into the ground. Sandy was standing on the first of the posts, preparing to jump from one to the next, while dodging the sandbags. Gene and Mr. Curtis watched from the other side of the course. Curtis had a whip in his hand. 

She made the jump easily, but my ears picked up her cry of pain as she landed. Her body was still sore, aching from the ordeal she'd been put through. Fighting to control my rising anger, I sprinted forward, outracing Frank as I hurried to stop her. 

As I neared, Sandy was trying to gauge the moment for the next jump. Two other Pixies, to either side of the scaffold, were swinging the bags. Behind her, one of the Pixies adjusted the swing of the bag she'd just passed, guiding it into a wider than normal arc. As Sandy made the leap past the second bag, the first one swung out of its path and struck her in the back. 

The Pixie giggled as Sandy cried out in agony. She fell sideways, landing sprawled in the dirt. She cried out again, trying to get back to her feet, but the pain was too much for her. Her back arched, her wings drawing taught as her muscles contracted, instinctively, in response to the pain. 

Curtis stepped forward, and to my astonishment, he began to whip her. "Get up!" He yelled. "We don't put up with weaklings on this ranch!" 

Somehow, Sandy managed to get up on one knee. "She caught me off guard... sir..." She said, her voice strained. "I wasn't..." 

"You expect an opponent to warn you when he's about to attack?" He whipped her again. Sandy screamed, putting up a hand to protect her face. "You expect him to just sit there and wait while you get back up?" 

I leaped between Curtis and Sandy, turning to straddle her with my back legs. My lips curled back in a snarl as I met the human's eyes. "Do not whip her again," I growled. 

Curtis looked shocked. Then he looked enraged. He brought the lash down on me a few times, but I didn't flinch. He could not cut into my leather-hard skin with a mere whip -- but then, it was not the physical pain that was hurting me. 

"I could have you destroyed!" He roared at me. 

"Be that as it may... you will not whip her again. At least, not today." 

Frank had finally caught up with us. "Mr. Curtis! Sandy is in no shape for training, much less your brand of 'discipline'." He was unable to keep the anger out of his voice, and Curtis glared at him. "Her body has not yet healed from the transformation..." 

"Oh, quit coddling her! Monsters have fought injured before, and they'll do so again..." 

Sandy coughed, and a trickle of blood ran out of her mouth. She doubled over, groaning. 

"Look at her!" Frank was almost screaming. "She's probably hemmoraging internally! I've got to get her back to the Lab!" 

Frank helped Sandy up, supporting her under her shoulder. Curtis frowned at them, but the blood had gotten his attention. He looked like he was torn between anger at being proven wrong, and embarrasment that it had happened in front of others. 

"How..." he paused a moment, to take a breath. "How long before she's ready to train." 

"One, maybe two days," Frank said, a little distracted. Sandy was hanging onto him, her arms wrapped around his neck, unable to support her own weight. But he turned and looked at Curtis. 

"Look, you've got the only Pixie/Henger in the world, here. You've spent untold amounts of money to create her. She's gotten further than any of her kind have EVER gotten before, and she's within sight of making all of that pay off... royally." 

He looked Curtis in the eye. "Do you really want to throw it all away now?" 

Frank turned and continued on to the Lab, talking gently to Sandy as she limped along beside him. Behind me, I could hear the Pixies whispering to each other. Curtis just stood there, next to me. He wasn't saying anything, but I could SMELL his anger, his humiliation. 

He looked down at me. "This isn't over between us, Gray Wolf." 

I struggled to keep my breathing under control. Every muscle in my body was tensed, and that red haze had come up behind my eyes again. But my voice was calm as I spoke. 

"You made me... ME... A TIGER... challenge the actions of someone with authority over me. You beat me... When I have NEVER disobeyed an order in my LIFE. You have taken something AWAY from me... something that I will NEVER get back." 

"If you want me destroyed, just go ahead... You cannot do any worse to me than you have already done." 

I walked away, leaving him to fume, and Gene and the Pixies to gape in astonishment. 


	8. Torture

  
"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 8  


  


"Ladies and Gentlemen," the announcer began. "This is a grade B tournament. In this corner, the Curtis Ranch's latest and most unique creation, Sandy, the Pixie/Henger!" 

Sandy blew a kiss to the audience, to a thundering response. She had done well in this tournament, and the crowd loved her. Many of them had shown up to see her, drawn by the stories of her D grade victory, and her unique Rocket Fist attack. And of course, now that she had matured, she was quite attractive. The males in the audience seemed to appreciate how little of her was covered by her Henger shell. 

"I must admit, I'm surprised," Swiftwind said. "I thought Curtis was making a mistake entering her in a B class tournament this soon. But she breezed through it." 

"The transformation was hard on her, but it made her stronger. She's much tougher, much more resilient than she was before." 

He looked at me. "Do you think she has a chance?" 

I shook my head. "I told her to stay away from him. Second place isn't bad, and it's better than the alternative." I looked at Swiftwind. "I told her about what he did to Lenny." 

Out in the Arena, the announcer was introducing her opponent. "Ladies and Gentlemen, he's your favorite and mine... Venom!!!" 

The Naga let out a bugle, answering a roar of applause from the crowd. He scraped his claws together, making a ringing, metallic sound. Swiftwind's lips curled upward in a snarl as he watched the snake creature revel in the attention. I was watching Sandy, though. She looked nervous, but not overly so. 

"I hope she listens to you. That Naga's a killer." 

"I hope so too, Swiftwind. But she and I watched some of his earlier fights. She knows what he's capable of." 

As the gong sounded, Sandy took to the air, her wings fluttering as she kept her distance from the Naga. She fired a few Rays at him, but the Naga was able to dodge them, easily. He chuckled, making a hissing noise. 

Venom darted in, trying to slash at her, but Sandy jumped backwards. She continued to run back, until she neared the wall, and then flew forwards, using her wings to bank around the Naga until she could land behind him. According to tournament rules, she couldn't keep her feet off the ground for more than a few seconds, but she could use her wings to fly for short distances. 

She turned around as she passed Venom, raising her arm skyward. A charge of electricity built in her hand, but instead of firing it, she let it continue to build. She rose into the air, with both hands high above her head, as the electricity enveloped her whole body. Then she directed the massive blast at the Naga. 

The Lightning struck Venom, the shock making his body jerk around. Sandy gathered another charge and blasted him with it, but this time the Naga managed to dodge. As Deathedge had done, he dashed forward through the flash, catching Sandy off guard. His long claws caught her across the belly, and there was a shriek of metal on metal. 

Sandy skipped backwards, her arm across her belly. She took a moment to look at herself. The Naga's claws had cut into the black material, and dark, oily blood was dripping from the wound. But the skeletal framework of metal had protected her from most of the damage. 

The Naga kept coming at her, and Sandy found herself backed up against the wall. She brought her arm up, steadying her aim with her other hand, as she pointed her fist at the Naga. The crowd cheered, in anticipation of her signature move. But as she fired the Rocket Fist, Venom simply leaped into the air, and the missile shot underneath him. Sandy screamed in fear as the Naga came down, tail first, on top of her. 

Somehow, the slender Pixie managed to dodge the Tail Attack. She fell, rolling on the grassy floor of the Arena, as Venom came down where she had been standing. Dirt sprayed upwards as the Naga's tail spike drilled into the earth. Sandy leaped back to her feet, holding the stump of her arm out behind her, as her fist rocketed back to her. 

But before her hand could reattach, Venom shoved past her, and grabbed it. Sandy stared at him, her eyes wide. He laughed, then crushed the detached limb in his fingers. Sandy gasped, putting her other hand to her stump, as she stared at it in shock. Then the Naga slithered forward, and stuck the hand back in place on her arm. 

Sandy screamed in agony, falling to her knees, clutching her broken hand. The Naga drew back his hand to slash at her, but somehow she managed to skip to her feet, leaping backwards. She raised her hand, the crushed one, and gathered a handful of electricity in it. Venom just reached out and grabbed her ankle, and Sandy's body snapped tight. She grunted in pain, as she hit the ground, landing hard on her wings. 

As Venom charged at her, Sandy blasted him with the Lightning. She had managed to hold her concentration, even through all of that. The Naga gave out a keening sound, as it shielded its eyes from the light. Sandy took advantage of the opportunity to get back to her feet, and back away. 

But as she ran backwards, her wings pumping, to help her keep her balance, I could see the strain in her face, the tears in her eyes. She suddenly cried out in pain, and there was a popping, sizzling noise. Sandy stumbled, and fell, crying out as she grabbed at her leg. Smoke began to come out of it, and she screamed, beating at the limb with her hands. 

The Naga studied her, unsure of what was happening. The smoke stopped billowing from Sandy's leg, but she groaned, holding her knee with both hands. That oily blood, almost black, was oozing from around her fingers, and running down her calf. 

"What... what just happened?" 

"It's her Henger half. It... blew out, or something. It must have taken too much damage..." 

The Naga seemed to guess that as well, because it slithered forward, laughing. Sandy tried to crawl backwards, but without her leg she was helpless. The Naga reached out a clawed hand and picked her up, his fingers tightening around her slender waist. Sandy gasped, trying to breathe. 

As Sandy squirmed in his grasp, Venom raked his claws across the exposed part of Sandy's chest. She screamed in pain. As with human women, that was an extraordinarily sensitive part of Sandy's body, and the Naga knew it. This Naga wasn't just torturing Sandy, it was intentionally doing what it knew would cause her the most pain. 

Sandy gritted her teeth, gathering another Lightning blast in her palm. The Naga just made that hissing chuckle. It slowly, almost casually, shoved its claws into Sandy's belly. The lightning sputtered and went out, as Sandy threw her head back, crying out. 

The muscles in the Naga's arm started moving, and Sandy began to twitch, her body convulsing. "He's draining her!" I started to yell. But before I could even finish, the Naga's face twisted into a grimace of disgust. He flung Sandy across the Arena, and she landed in a heap, rolling in the grass. 

The Naga began to spit, sticking his tongue out. "She must not taste very good," I commented, just a little bit amused. But Sandy looked in bad shape. "How much more time does she have?" I asked Swiftwind. 

"Too much," he said. 

The Naga was closing in on her again. Sandy stirred, trying to get back to her feet, but she could only make it up to one knee. She knelt there, her head down, one arm across her stomach, the other shaking from the effort of holding her body upright. 

"Aren't they going to stop this?" I wondered, but I already knew the answer. Once in the Arena, a monster was on its own. 

I slammed against the gate, snapping the lock open. "Stop!" Swiftwind yelled. "You can't interfere!" But I ignored him. I charged across the Arena, heading for the Naga. 

But Venom was already standing over Sandy, his arm up to deliver the death blow. I was too far away to stop him, or even to distract him, but I was close enough to see Sandy. I was probably the only one who was close enough to see exactly what happened. 

As I charged across the Arena towards Sandy, and as the Naga brought down his razor sharp claws, Sandy turned and looked up at him. The look on her face was one of sheer, uncontrolled fury. Her teeth were clenched, her lips curled into a snarl. And her eyes were locked on him, flashing hatred and anger -- and something more. 

Because Sandy's eyes did not just flash, they lit up. They glowed, with an eerie, frightening green light, like a flame burning inside her. Her arm came up, her fist clenched, and there was a throbbing, humming noise. The light flared up again, this time on the back of her wrist. And then she thrust her arm forwards, up into the Naga's stomach. 

The Naga froze. A beam of green light, humming with power, emerged from the center of his back. Venom made a gurgling noise, deep down in his throat, and his eyes rolled back in his head. A trickle of blood ran out of his mouth. Time seemed to stop, the two figures just frozen there, neither of them moving. 

A hush fell over the Arena, the cheers and catcalls of the watching audience falling suddenly and shockingly silent. Even so, I am quite sure I was the only who heard Sandy's words. Even I, with my Tiger's hearing, only barely heard her. She almost whispered, each word drawn out, her voice low and menacing. 

"You... will... never... torture... anyone... ever... again.... Monster..." 

The humming sound stopped. The Laser Sword flicked out, and the Naga rolled off to the side, dead. Then Sandy fainted. 

* * * * *

Sandy remained unconscious for the better part of three days, but Curtis was overjoyed by her performance. He accepted the B grade trophy for her gladly, taking every opportunity to brag about her abilities. There were a couple of complaints, mainly from the breeder who had raised the Naga, but it wasn't like his monster hadn't sent many of his opponent's to an early grave. 

My entry into the Arena, on the other hand, was a more serious matter. It was finally determined that I had not been close enough to the combat to have had an effect on it. The fact that Venom did not seem to have been aware of my presence, and that I had in fact not been on the Arena floor more than a few seconds before the death blow came, went a long way towards clearing me. 

Once we got back to the Ranch, though, Curtis seemed to become obsessed with getting Sandy to repeat the Laser Sword attack. Frank looked her over, but when he talked to Curtis about it, he didn't have good news. 

"She shouldn't have even been able to summon the Laser Sword in the first place," he said. "Her emitters are still immature. Even on a Henger, it can be two or even three years before their Laser emitters start to work." 

Frank held up Sandy's arm, so Curtis could look at it more closely. "There's no way this can emit a Laser Beam. Now, maybe she used her psychic abilities to augment the emitter, make it work somehow. But if that's the case, then it was her state of mind at the time that caused it to happen. And at that moment she was under extreme emotional stress." 

That's putting it mildly, I thought to myself. 

"Can you... recreate the way you were feeling, when you used the sword?" Curtis asked Sandy. 

She shook her head. "I don't remember anything, from the point where he tried to drain me to when I woke up here." Sandy looked down at herself. She still had some nasty scratches across her chest, although they were healing nicely. 

"With time... her emitters should continue to develop. Now that we know they're functional, we can begin to try and train her to use them. For now, though, I would treat what happened as a fluke. It's probably going to be at least a year before she'll be able to use that attack again." 

Curtis paused a moment, then he looked at me. "I wanted to thank you, Gray Wolf. I had some tough explaining to do, and a pretty hefty fine to pay for you charging in there like that, but if Sandy hadn't acted when she did, you'd have probably been the only chance to save my investment. So it may have been an embarassment to me, but it was the right thing to do." 

I showed no reaction, even when he called Sandy an "investment". "Thank you, sir," I said. 

"What about the Naga owner?" Frank asked. "Is he going to ask for any kind of restitution?" 

"I'm probably going to pay him four or five thousand just to keep him quiet. But he doesn't really have much say." He looked down at me. "While you were on the floor charging to the rescue, I was up in the judge's box trying to stop the fight. If they'd called the penalty when the Naga picked up Sandy like that, he'd still be alive today. They know it, and his owner knows it." 

"Well, the damage to her leg turned out not to be that serious," Frank told him. "She just needs a little bit more time, to let her body heal, that's all." 

"You can get down now, Sandy." She hopped down off of the table. Her long legs were just barely shorter than the height of the table, now, so she did not have that far to drop. She was only a little shorter than Frank. She tested her leg, gingerly putting weight on it, and winced. But she was able to stand. 

"Well, keep me up to date on it." Curtis walked out of the lab. 

Sandy limped a few steps. "I can walk on my own, Frank," she said. "Come on, Steppenwolf." 

We walked out into the sunlight, and towards the stables. Sandy looked at her hand, flexing and extending the fingers. "How's it doing?" I asked her. 

"It's tougher than it looks," she said. "I still don't know how I was able to feel it, when it wasn't attached to my body. But even though it felt like it was broken, it really wasn't. Or maybe it fixed itself or something." 

"What about the voices? Are you still hearing those?" 

She shook her head. "It's been integrating itself into my system. I think of it less and less as another voice, and more and more as my own." She looked at her hand. "I guess I think of this thing the same way..." 

But there was a note of sadness in her voice. "That's good," I said. 

We walked along in silence for a while. Her gait was precise, measured, even a little graceful. It hadn't taken her long to learn to walk again, to fly, to run, in the aftermath of the sudden and violent changes to her body. 

"Steppenwolf..." She finally began. "Do you... do you think I'm attractive?" 

"What?" I shook my head, to clear it. "Of course I do." 

"No, I mean... you know what I mean. Do you think I'm... pretty?" 

I looked up at her. "In human terms... yeah. You're... you're gorgeous. You could hear the way that crowd reacted to you." A lot of that was due to the fact that she wasn't wearing a bathing suit any more. Her Henger half afforded her enough modesty, and of course there was nothing human left of her hips and stomach. But she still had plenty of bare flesh, and didn't seem shy about showing it. 

In fact, as I looked at her, I realized that she was not quite built like other Pixies. Her skin was pale, almost like a Mint's, and her build was very slender and delicate. In fact, for all the strength of her Henger half, it still looked like it wouldn't take much to snap her in two. I had noticed that, when she was fighting the Naga. She seemed so... helpless. 

"What's the problem?" I asked her. "Are the Pixies picking on you again?" 

She shook her head. "No, actually, they've been leaving me alone lately. It's Gene. He..." 

"He didn't..." 

"No!" She shook her head again, looking down at me. "He just... um... he said I was pretty, that's all." 

"He made a pass at you." 

"A what?" She looked off into the distance. "Is that what he did?" 

I was about to ask her more about it, but some harsh voices interrupted me. As we rounded the corner of one of the stables, we came into the view of a group of Zuums. Crimson was sitting amongst them. 

"Hey, look, it's the puppy!" Crimson said. His Zuums laughed. "I hear you ran out into the Arena when another monster was fighting, puppy!" 

"Who knows, Crimson, I might do the same for you if you're about to be killed by a Naga. Then again, I might not." 

A couple of the Zuums laughed, again, but quickly squelched the reaction when Crimson scowled. He stood up and walked closer to me. "You don't interfere in another monster's fight, puppy..." 

"Leave him alone!" Sandy protested. "He saved my life!" 

"And you!" The Salamander turned on her. "You're a murderer! A monster killer!" 

Sandy blanched. "No! He was going to kill me! I... I had to defend myself!" 

A few more of the Zuums called out "murderer", and Sandy blinked back tears. "That's enough," I said to Crimson. "You and your cronies don't mind jumping a monster in the middle of the night and beating him half to death, but Sandy tries to protect herself from a monster killer, and all of a sudden that makes her one? Somehow I don't see any of you holding back. You're probably as bad as Venom." 

"That tells you how much you know about me, puppy." Crimson shoved his beaked, dragon-like face right up to mine, staring me in the eye. "You don't kill a monster in the ring. That's the Code of Honor." 

"Honor among thieves, huh?" I looked up at Sandy. She was sobbing, her hands over her face. "Come on, Sandy, let's get out of here." 

"Watch your back, puppy!" Crimson called out, as we walked away. But as I spared a glance behind at him, I found myself wondering. What kind of a monster would he have been, if he had been raised on my Master's ranch, instead of this place?


	9. Betrayal

  
"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 9  


  


Sandy poked her head in the door of the Lab. "Mr. Curtis... I heard you wanted to see me?" 

"Yes," replied Frank, "come in, Sandy." 

She joined us in the Lab, looking warily at Curtis, but she had a smile for me. "I've got a surprise for you..." Frank said. "Next month will be your first birthday!" 

Sandy blushed. "I know. I was kind of hoping... no one would make a big deal." 

"It'll just be you and me and Steppenwolf, then," Frank said, "is that okay?" 

She looked at the floor, but she was smiling. "I guess so." 

"Well, the thing is, now that you're getting to be an adult, I think it's time we gave you a little more responsibility." 

"More responsibility?" 

Mr. Curtis nodded. "As you know, Sandy, we let the older monsters on this ranch train the younger monsters. Just as Steppenwolf has been working with you, we want you to start helping out with a baby monster, showing it how to fight, how to train, and what is expected of it here on the ranch." 

"And there's more to it than just training," Frank added. "Just as Steppenwolf became your friend, we want you to be a friend to the new monster." 

"I think this is a great chance for you." I said. "I was about your age when I started working with the young monsters on my old ranch." I smiled at her. "And you'll be surprised at how good it makes you feel..." 

Sandy bit her lip. "But I don't... I don't really know that much about fighting," she said. "You're so good at it, and I'm... well, I'm not that good." 

"You're actually a lot better than you think," Frank told her. "You've come a long way, very quickly. You're a lot stronger than most monsters of your age. A lot of that has to do with Steppenwolf's training," he grinned at me, "but a lot of it is YOU." 

"You have a long way to go before you're actually able to help with the real training," Curtis added. "Maybe about six months to a year from now, you'll be ready. But we want you to start with a baby so that by the time you're ready to help with the training, it'll be ready to train." 

"And I know you'll do fine." Frank added. 

She looked at me. "So... you'll still be training me?" 

"Of course." I smiled at her. "I'll be there to teach you how to train the other monsters, too. You don't have to pick it up all at once. You can learn as you go, just like you did when you were learning to fight." 

Sandy was still a little unsure of herself, but I could see the excitement in her eyes. She pressed her hands to her lips, staring off into space across her folded fingers. "So... I'll be training one of the monsters in the baby stable, then." 

"Actually, we had a specific monster in mind," Mr. Curtis said. 

"Oh?" 

"We want you to train a new monster, one we'll Combine here in the Lab. You can start with it right from birth, teach it what you know, get to know it." 

Frank was starting to look a little nervous. Sandy didn't notice it, but I did. They hadn't said anything about this, when we talked before. All of a sudden, I started to get that queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach again. 

"And you have more to offer than just fighting ability, Sandy," Frank said. "You can help her in other ways, too. You'll... You can share... your experiences with her, help her understand... about herself." 

Curtis nodded. "She'll be just like you, Sandy, a little sister you can help raise. And you'll be invaluable in helping us raise her. Monsters always do best at raising their own kind..." 

Sandy had become very still and quiet. The excitement she had felt before was completely gone. In its place was a growing tension, so strong I could smell it. But neither Frank not Curtis seemed to notice. Or maybe they didn't want to notice. 

"It's time that we thought about creating our next Pixie/Henger," Curtis was saying. "The time is right. You've survived the stage that killed both of your predecessors, and developed your new body in ways we hadn't even expected. You've..." 

"YOU'RE GOING TO CREATE ANOTHER ONE?!!!" Sandy's voice was so loud that I had to turn my head away. "YOU'RE GOING TO DO THIS TO SOMEONE ELSE?!!!" 

"I think that I can control the transformation this time..." Frank began, but Sandy cut him off. 

"No! I won't let you do it! I won't let you put another Pixie through what I went through! You just CAN'T!!!" 

"Look, I understand how you feel..." Curtis began. 

"No you don't!" Sandy turned on the man, her fists clenched. "You don't give a DAMN about how I feel!" 

"Sandy..." Frank warned. 

Sandy was furious, so angry that she was shaking. "All you care about is your Pixie/Henger! And I had to pay the price for it!" Tears came to her eyes, but she wiped them away. "You put this... this THING in me, and..." 

She hid her face in her hands, unable to continue. Frank put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Sandy. I really am. I made a lot of mistakes, and..." 

Sandy looked up at him, the anger returning, although the tears were still running down her cheeks. "How can you even THINK of doing this, when you SAW what it did to me! When you saw it... devour me... from the inside out..." Her voice choked. 

"That's why we want you to help us, Sandy." Not surprisingly, Curtis was frowning, and his voice held that tone of someone who was used to his orders being obeyed without question. "Now that we know what to look out for, and with you to help her through it..." 

Sandy looked away from him, disgusted. Then her eyes met mine. The look of heartache, of betrayal in her eyes was more than I could bear. 

"Them I can understand, Steppenwolf... but you? I thought you were my friend..." 

"I didn't know, Sandy. I swear, I didn't know." 

She turned towards the door, wiping away tears. Frank tried to stop her, but she shoved him aside. She ran out of the Lab, and out into the field beyond. A few startled monsters watched her run past, and muttered to themselves. 

* * * * *

Days passed, and I continued my own training, since Sandy was avoiding me. Inferno met me on the training grounds, and asked if I minded a rematch of our first battle. I wasn't sure what the Dragon was up to, but there wasn't really anyone else there on the ranch who could challenge me. I needed the practice, so I agreed. 

Inferno chatted amiably as we walked to the sparring ring, commenting on the weather, which was getting colder, and the tournaments that he had entered recently. I didn't buy his nice guy act, but I did appreciate that he seemed to be trying to put our first meeting behind him. 

"I'm not going to go easy on you, Gray Wolf," he was saying, although he was being good natured about it. 

"Well, don't think I'm going to be nice to you because I beat you last time," I said. "If you want to even the score you're going to have to work for it." 

We approached the ring. There was a rope blocking off the entranceway, and I ducked under it. Inferno sort of half hopped over it, half fluttered his wings. "We don't need referees, do we?" Inferno asked me, grinning slyly. 

"Actually, your friend Brom doesn't like me very much," I told him. "I'm hoping that without him watching, we can have a real fight, without having to worry about what certain trainers will think." 

"That was my thought," Inferno agreed. "Brom takes care of me, but he can be a pain sometimes. Sometimes I get tired of doing nothing but what he wants me to do." 

I studied the Dragon carefully. This was a very different Inferno from the one I had fought before. But was this who he really was, or was it all just an act? I never did find out whether it was Brom or Inferno who had ordered Crimson to attack me. So was he the cause of my problems here, or was he just another one of this ranch's victims? 

"Ready?" I nodded. "Then let's fight!" 

Inferno began with his usual tactic, trying to take to the air and blast me with his fire breath, but I leaped at him, clearing the distance between us before he could gain much altitude. I again landed on his head, and bit into his ear, but he shrugged off the attack. He turned his head as if to snap at me, but couldn't reach. 

"If you had a long neck like a FIMBA Dragon, that would work," I said, rolling off of his back, and landing on all fours on the ground. I dodged as he swiped at me with his tail. 

"Yes, you come from that other continent, don't you?" The Dragon said. He lumbered forward, and I danced around, keeping him busy. "I've never seen one of those Dragons." 

"They're not as big as you," I said, "but they're taller. Not as compact." 

He swiped at me, and I leaped in. I turned a flip, kicking against his chest. Lightning flashed from my paws as I struck him. He hissed, drawing in his breath, but kept up his chatter. 

"I bet you've fought lots of dragons, huh?" 

"None as strong as you," I said, honestly. "But most were faster. I fought a Laguna for the Dragon Tusk once." 

"Laguna?" 

"Ragnaroks," I said, the IMa name for a Dragon/Monol. 

"If he'd have hit me, he'd have killed me," I added, leaping aside as he whipped at me with his tail. 

"And if I hit you... ?" He asked with a smile. 

"I don't plan on letting that happen," I replied. 

He started a Flutter, but I braced myself against the gust. As he was recovering, I leaped back and let go full force with a Blizzard. He wasn't even able to react before I again leaped forward, flying through the air to strike him direct in the forehead. 

Inferno was stunned for a few moments. When his head finally cleared, he grinned at me. "Okay, I'll give you that round." 

His grin bared a mouthful of sharp teeth, but I grinned back at him. After all, he wasn't the only one with fangs. 

We returned to our respective positions. I nodded when he asked "Ready", and then he said "Go!" But neither of us moved. I watched him closely, for any sign of his flame attack, but he was waiting for me, as well. 

He grinned again. "Didn't fall for it." 

"So it would seem." 

I danced around on the edge of his flame range. I kept watching him for any sign of movement, but he was obviously waiting for me to come to him. I remembered how he had slapped me aside when I leaped at him, in that first fight. Obviously a direct attack wasn't going to work. 

I kept jumping forward and back, not letting him get comfortable with my range. I continued to creep forward, however, getting closer and closer, until I was just within Combination range. I leaped at him, but he dodged my backflip. He slashed at me, but his attempt was half-hearted, and I was able to avoid it easily. 

I leaped back to Blizzard range, and lowered my head, gathering my power. I opened my mouth to exhale the blast of frost at him, and Inferno brought up his wing as a shield. As he did, however, I leaped forward. The Blizzard had been a feint, I had actually been gathering my Lightning, and I let it go as I leaped over his head. Not expecting at attack from above, he was unable to block the sheet of crackling energy, and he jerked backwards. 

"Nice move," he said, as I settled into a position just outside his arm's reach. 

"Thank you." 

We began the dance again, circling each other, watching for an opening, slashing with our claws or fangs, then darting back. "You're a bit faster," I told him. "You've been training." 

"Thank you," he said. "Curtis was right. I've been concentrating too much on building up my strength." 

"It's made you a better fighter," I said. 

He raised an eyebrow. "Compliments, Gray Wolf?" 

"I tell it as I see it, Inferno." 

"Indeed." He swiped at me again, but he was still not really trying. And I was getting winded. I realized that he was using a variation of my technique on me, letting me get tired, while he saved his strength for use when an opening presented itself. 

At least he was learning. 

"You've been training, too," he commented. "That backflip attack of yours really stings." 

"I do the best I can." 

"You've been training that Pixie/Henger, too. Sandy, isn't that her name?" 

I dodged a claw. "Yes, her name is Sandy," I said, cautiously. 

"You're pretty fond of her, I'll bet," he made the comment sound offhand, casual. 

"She's a friend..." That disquieting feeling was back. Was he going to threaten her? Was that what this was all about? 

"I'd like to fight her some time. I hear a lot about her. She must be good if she was trained by you." 

"You might do best to stay away from her. She doesn't do well when she's backed into a corner." 

"Yes... I heard about that. Too bad. It must be a heavy burden on her." 

I couldn't keep my lips from curling into a snarl. "She isn't happy. That's for sure." 

"I heard about that, too. My sources say she charged out of the Lab, yelling at Frank and Curtis. She must be under a lot of stress to yell at a trainer like that." 

Suddenly, the Dragon lunged forward. Red lightning seemed to gather around his body as he came at me. The lightning flowed into his arm as he pulled it back, and then he slammed his fist into me. I was thrown through the fence around the ring, which I punched through as if it was made out of paper. 

As I recovered my senses, Inferno was waddling towards me. He looked back over his shoulder at a crowd of monsters that was gathering. "Why don't we call it a tie, Gray Wolf," he said. "Two rounds is enough exercise for me, and we seem to be attracting too much attention." 

I put a paw to my head, and wasn't surprised to feel blood. Not much, though. "A tie, then. Thanks for the... exercise." 

The Dragon chuckled, a low rumbling sound. I held his gaze. 

"Remember what I said about Sandy," I finally said. "I'd hate for someone to get hurt... because of her." 

"Oh, I won't forget. As you said, who knows what she might do if she was pushed too far..." 

The Dragon lumbered off, leaving me to face a crowd of confused and curious onlookers.


	10. Violation

  
"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 10  


  


I lay in the darkness in my stall, with my paws folded, resting my head on them. But I couldn't sleep. I kept remembering Inferno's words. "Who knows what she might do if she was pushed too far?" 

Was he threatening her? Or did he mean something more subtle? All Inferno had to do was make things more difficult for her, drop a few hints in the ears of the right monsters, or even turn Gene against her. Brom and Gene didn't seem to get along, but that didn't mean that Inferno's reach didn't extend between their two stables. 

The problem was, Inferno was right. Sandy could be capable of anything, if she lost control of herself, or just plain snapped. An image flashed across my mind, of Sandy striking down the Naga, with that inhuman green light glowing from behind her eyes. And I shuddered. 

How could I protect her, when even *I* was sending pain and heartache her way? I wanted to... I wanted to make her happy. And yet I couldn't shake the feeling that I was letting her down. First with Frank and Curtis, and now Inferno. I wanted to help her, but all I was doing was making things worse. 

"YOU love me, don't you?" I could almost hear Sandy's voice, pleading with me, at the lake. It seemed like a lifetime ago. But I did love her. 

Something inside me balked. I tried to push the thought away, to deny it, but it was the truth. Somewhere along the line, I had forgotten that we had no future together, that we were just monsters, made for fighting and nothing else. "A monster's life is short," Ralph had said. "Don't waste it." But I wanted to spend what was left of mine with Sandy. 

I heard a shuffling noise outside of the stable. It was right near my stall, footsteps in the grass, and then a scraping sound, as if someone was leaning against the wall. I heard a quiet sob. It was Sandy. She paused there for a second, and then the footsteps continued on, towards the door to the stable. 

She fumbled with the bolt on the door and then eased it open. I leaped over the railing of my stall, landing silently on the soft dirt floor. I watched as she passed in front of the light from the doorway, but she hadn't noticed me. She sniffled again, and then called out to me, softly. "Steppenwolf?" 

"I'm here," I answered, just as quietly. I padded over to her, and she blinked at me, trying to see clearly in the half-darkness. "Let's go outside. No sense in waking everyone up." 

I stepped out through the door, and she turned and followed me. As I looked up at her, I couldn't suppress a gasp at what I saw. Her face was bruised, her cheeks were tear-stained, her eyes puffy from crying. And there was a large red mark on her chest, about the size and shape of the imprint of a fist. 

"Sandy! What happened to you...?" 

"It was Gene." She hid her face in her hands, sobbing. "He came to me tonight. He came to my stall. He..." Her voice choked. 

"I'll rip his throat out!" I growled. 

"No!" She threw her arms around me. "Molly doesn't know! She CAN'T know! It'll kill her! Please..." 

I tried to get a better look at her. "Did he hit you? Did you get away, or..." I couldn't finish. 

"I didn't want to hurt him. When I tried to stop him... he... he hit me. I didn't... want him to get hurt... so I... I didn't fight back..." 

I couldn't hold back a snarl of fury. "He'll pay for this... Molly or no Molly, he'll PAY for this." 

She buried her face in my fur, still sobbing. "Just take me to the lake, Steppenwolf. Please." 

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. "Okay. Just climb on, I'll carry you." 

She did so, straddling my back, and laying forward to keep her arms around my neck. She was so much bigger now than she was when we first went to the lake. But then I remembered the last time she had ridden on my back, her grip like iron, her body shaking with pain. I hadn't thought about it then, but she would soon be too tall for me to comfortably carry her. 

I walked along in silence, while Sandy clung to me. She continued to sniffle, but only occasionally. The moonlight was more than bright enough, and I was able to wind my way through the forest with ease. Finally, we came to our spot on the edge of the lake. 

Sandy sat up as we neared, and I trotted to a stop next to the big stone. She stepped off of me onto the rock, and dove into the water. I sat on the bank, watching her, while she swam. She stayed in the water for a long time, but finally she waded back to shore and sat down. 

She sat huddled on the rock, her arms wrapped around herself. "How far did he go, Sandy?" I finally asked her. 

She said nothing. When she finally spoke, it was to say, "You can't tell anyone. It'll just hurt Molly. And I guess I don't really want to hurt Gene, either." 

I lowered my head. "You can't just let him get away with this. Molly is one thing... or at least... she SEEMS to be with him by choice, from what you've told me. Who knows how their relationship started..." 

"I was afraid," she said. "I didn't... I didn't want to hurt him. Like I hurt..." Sandy was silent again, for a long moment. "When he hit me... I just... I just decided to let him do what he wanted." 

I shuddered. "Sandy... what if he tries this again? You have to talk to someone..." 

Sandy looked at the ground. "Nothing happened, Steppenwolf. You don't have to worry." 

"What? What do you mean?" 

"He stopped, Steppenwolf." 

I shook my head, confused. "What, you mean after hitting you and finally getting his way he suddenly decided he had a conscience?" 

Sandy didn't answer. "Even so, he could try it again. And next time, he might not be..." 

"He COULDN'T, Steppenwolf!" Sandy shouted. And then the tears came to her eyes again. She wiped them away, angrily, but then she wrapped both arms around her body, and started shaking. 

"He couldn't," she repeated. "*I* couldn't. I was going to let him, but he couldn't. I'm not... I'm not..." 

She sobbed. "I'm not HUMAN any more, Steppenwolf!" 

I just stared at her. I didn't know what to say. 

"When he realized... that I wasn't... that I couldn't... he just got up and left me... like I was nothing..." 

"And that's what I am. Nothing. Just a thing. A machine. Pretending to be a... a Pixie. A cold, dead thing. Pretending to be alive." 

"Stop that!" I stepped in front of her, leaning down to meet her eyes. I wished I had hands so I could shake her. "You AREN'T a thing! A thing doesn't cry! A thing doesn't hurt! And you've done BOTH more than any monster should HAVE to do in its lifetime!" 

"It's GENE who thinks of you as a thing... What he DID to you... it's wrong. You can't let that... make you feel..." 

"Oh, it's not just that, Steppenwolf." Sandy sniffled, wiping away tears. "It's... well... that, on top of everything ELSE. I just don't know what I AM any more, Steppenwolf. I've lost so much... of what made me... me..." 

"I don't think so." I nudged her cheek, and she looked at me. "However much your body may have changed, you're still the same... in your heart." 

She gave a little laugh. "Do I even have a heart?" 

"You know what I mean. Maybe your heart is a... machine pumping whatever serves as a Henger's blood around in your body. But it still beats, doesn't it? You still get nervous, and scared, and excited, don't you?" 

"I've known Hengers, and they have feelings, too. Maybe they're a bit... single-minded, but they're living things, just like we are. They grow, and eat, and sleep, and get happy, and sad..." 

But Sandy shook her head. "Not like us. Their feelings are... cold, detached." She wrapped her arms around herself. "Their thoughts are... just... facts. Simple logic. They don't understand US, either. To them, we are unpredictable, chaotic." 

She was silent for a moment. "As we've become... closer... more like... one mind... I've felt myself... losing... my feelings. I find myself... thinking about things. My stall, the food I'm eating, my training, I find myself... analyzing it, figuring out ways of making it better. Improving... efficiency." 

"That's why I've been... avoiding you lately." She stared at the ground. "I'm not sure... what I'm becoming." 

"... or whether you'd like it." 

I felt my heart tighten in my chest. I knew what I wanted to say to her, but I just couldn't. Not after what Gene had done, anyway... 

"Sandy. Do you remember what I told you? That I would help you become whatever you decide to be?" She bit her lip as she nodded. "I've never forgotten that promise, and I never will. Whatever's happening to you, we'll get through it, together." 

She wiped a few more tears away. I took a deep breath. "Now... I understand how you feel about Molly, but we have to tell Frank. He should check you out, make sure you're all right." 

She shook her head. "No. He'll tell Curtis. I don't want... I don't want anyone else to know about this." 

"Sandy, you could be hurt! We have to make sure..." 

"I'm fine!" She brushed at her face with a hand, then waved it at me, dismissively. "I told you, he didn't do anything..." 

"... Anything but HIT you. You know how fragile your body is. You might be bleeding, like when Curtis hit you." 

"But..." 

"Sandy, please... just so I can feel better about it." 

She stared at me a moment, but then nodded. She wiped her eyes again. "I'll go see him in the morning," she said. 

Sandy looked back across the lake, and I slowly turned away. I found a dry spot on the bank, turned around a few times to pack down the earth, and lay down. Sandy continued to sit on the rock. I could see the outline of her body, lit by the moonlight, as she sat there in silence. 

After a few minutes, though, she stood up and walked over to me. She knelt down next to me, and curled up against my back, with her hands in my mane. 

"Steppenwolf... I don't know what I'd do in this place, without you..." 

"It's all right. I'll always be there for you." 

"Will you?" Her arms tightened around me, a fierce hug. "How can you be sure? How can you be sure something won't happen... to either of us?" 

I had no answer. She held me like that, protectively, until she fell asleep. And then I fell asleep as well. 

* * * * *

As Sandy expected, when she told Frank what happened, he wanted to tell Curtis immediately. He was just as enraged as I was, and his reaction was almost as violent. Sandy insisted that he tell no one, however, and refused to let him examine her until he agreed. So he reluctantly promised not to tell Mr. Curtis. 

He looked Sandy over thoroughly, although he seemed relieved when Sandy explained why Gene had been forced to stop. Sandy was embarrassed to talk about it, though, and blushed a deep red as Frank made sure that her hips weren't damaged. 

"I'm sorry, Sandy," Frank said to her. "I know this must be hard for you." 

"No... I'm being silly, I guess. I mean, nothing happened, right?" 

Frank put a hand on her shoulder. "Sandy... just because you got away, that doesn't mean you weren't violated." 

Her eyes widened, and then she nodded. "I guess I didn't think of it that way." 

"It's all right. It could have been worse. He still beat you pretty badly." 

As well as on her face and chest, there were several large bruises on Sandy's thighs. There was even an area of discoloration on the plate that grew up over Sandy's left breast. The tan material had turned a dark brown, and where the plate grew out of her chest the skin was purple. 

Frank examined the plate. "What happened here?" 

"He tried to... take it off... I think. It hurt... I told him it was part of me. But he pulled down on it, really hard. It fractured, cracked where it grows out of one of my ribs." 

"How do you know that?" 

"System status. My repair system has discovered the break and is working on it." 

Frank looked impressed. "So he stopped pulling on it when he realized it didn't come off?" 

She nodded. "He found he could... um... get his hand underneath it..." she turned pink again. "But that didn't hurt." 

"There is some bruising, though." He walked back over to his cabinet. "But I think that's all. I'll just use the normal cream for bruises. It'll probably work on that spot on your Henger shell, too." 

He picked up his jar of cream, and began to rub it onto Sandy's face and body. He continued to talk as he worked, keeping his voice casual. "You'll want to stay away from the other Pixies for the rest of the day. By tomorrow, the bruises should have faded enough that you won't have to answer any questions." 

"I think I'll stay here in the lab," she said. "I feel a little too sore to do any walking around..." 

"That's understandable." He frowned. "I have to tell you, I've treated Pixies for mysterious... bruises... before. Lately, it's been Molly. Nothing serious, just... well, I knew it was a trainer, I just couldn't tell which one." 

Sandy didn't say anything. "Is she in love with him?" 

"I think she is, yes." 

"There were others, before her." 

"I know. I guess she knows, too." 

"Well... for now I'll keep the secret. But I better not see any bruises on any other Pixies." 

He returned to his cabinet with the jar of cream and put it away. Then he walked back over to Sandy. "Sandy... about yesterday..." 

She looked at the floor. "I'm really sorry." Frank said. "I didn't think your reaction would be so... well, I guess I thought you might get mad, but..." 

"Frank, how do you expect me to feel?" Sandy asked. 

"Sandy, just hear me out, okay? Let me just explain, and then if you still don't want to do it, we won't." 

Sandy was quiet, so he continued. "I think that I can prevent the next Pixie/Henger from having to go through what you went through. We know that your Henger half misunderstood what was going on in your body during puberty. It tried to take control of your body, by 'growing over' your Pixie half, kind of like the way your skin grows over a big wound when you are hurt by an attack." 

"The thing is, we didn't realize that your Henger half had a mind of its own. We just thought the Henger Eye was, well, just an Eye, we didn't realize that there was a mind connected to it. We never tried to communicate with it, and IT never tried to communicate with US, either. When things started to go wrong, there was no way for us to tell it to stop, to make it try and work WITH your Pixie half." 

"Now... from what we understand, Hengers have some sort of a special way of thinking, all their own. They have their own language, and can talk to each other through their Eyes. And they have a... well, a set of instructions, a program, it's called, that makes them run." 

"The Operating System," Sandy said. 

"Yes. Well of course, you know all about it." He grinned. "Anyway, the Operating System contains all of the parameters for the Henger, and how it's supposed to grow and develop. For most Hengers, they grow at a constant rate, just getting bigger, they don't undergo growth stages like other monsters do." 

"In your case, the Henger half was able to keep up with the Pixie half, at first. You grew at a constant rate, through your childhood. When you entered puberty, however, your growth accelerated, becoming faster. The Henger half couldn't keep up. In addition, your body was changing, as well as growing. So even when your Henger half was able to catch up with your Pixie half, it was still worried about the erratic way in which you were growing." 

"The rest you know. If we can tell the Henger half what to expect, though, when it should begin its growth spurt, to keep pace, and when to stop it, and assure it that nothing is going wrong, there should be no reason for what happened to you to happen again. We can get a purebred Henger to communicate with the undeveloped Henger mind in our Pixie/Henger, or even get you to do it." 

"So you see, there's nothing to be afraid of. You've paved the way, you've... you've made it so that all those who follow you can have it easier than you did..." 

Sandy was silent for a long, long time. She kicked her feet a couple of times. Then she looked up at Frank. "Can you be sure of that?" 

"You told me that I wasn't going to die. You told me that you knew what to look for this time. You were wrong. What if you're wrong again?" 

Frank stared at her a moment. "I... I can't make you any promises, Sandy. But I didn't... I didn't let you die." He swallowed. "I know... I know I made a mistake. But at least this time... you survived." 

"Did I?" 

She fell silent again. A hush seemed to hang over the room. Then she picked up her hands, and put them on her chest. 

"Look at me. LOOK at me. I'm not a Pixie. I'm not a Henger. The line between my flesh and my machinery does not start at my ribs, and end at my elbows. This feels real," she indicated the bare skin of her chest, "but inside, there are wires and motors, mixed in with the muscles and organs." 

She looked down at herself, at the cable buried just under the skin, following the line of her breastbone down from her Henger Eye. "I'm half a person... TWO halves of a person, forced to work together just to survive. I'm not alive..." she sobbed. "But I'm not truly dead, either. The machine won't LET me die, it keeps my body going, feeding it what it needs, but... I'M NOT WHOLE!" 

"Don't you understand?" She was crying, now, her voice pleading. "THIS is as much of a violation as what Gene did to me! I didn't ask for this, YOU did this to me, and I..." 

She shook her head, blinking away tears. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't blame you for this. You couldn't have known." 

"But don't you UNDERSTAND?!!! Don't you think there's a REASON why Pixie/Hengers don't exist?" 

"Look at me!" She sobbed. "Can you look at me and tell me that this is all worth it?" 

Sandy stared at Frank, and then at me. Letting out another sob, she stood up, as if to run out of the lab. But Frank caught her arm. He pulled her to him, hugging her. "It's all right, Sandy. We won't make another Pixie/Henger. Not until you're ready." 

She cried in Frank's arms, while he stroked her hair reassuringly. "I... I never meant to hurt you, Sandy. I guess I didn't realize how this affected you. I won't do any more research -- okay? -- until we can work this out. I promise." 

"What about Curtis?" She asked, her face pressed against his chest. 

"He can wait. I'll tell him that we shouldn't create any more Pixie/Hengers until I can be sure I've got the process right. Is that all right?" 

"I guess so." 


	11. Fitting In

  
"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 11  


  


Over the next week, Sandy began training for a tournament. I wasn't sure if Frank had arranged it to get her away from Gene for a while, but Curtis announced that she had been added to the lineup to replace a Naga that had broken its arm. I had to keep training, for an upcoming A class battle, so for the first time, I wasn't allowed to go with her. Sandy seemed worried, but I assured her that Swiftwind and Lenny would look after her. 

A few days after Sandy left, I was approached by a Pixie. She was a little older than Sandy, and not nearly as slender, but really wasn't much taller. This made her look very curvaceous, and her red hair was unusually long and wavy. "Are you Steppenwolf?" she asked me. 

I nodded. "I'm Molly. Sandy's friend." 

"She's told me about you." 

"Yeah, she's told me about you, too. Have you... uh... talked to her lately?" 

"Well... I didn't get a chance to see her much, before she left for the tournament. I'm helping with her training, but we don't have much time to talk..." 

Molly looked uncomfortable. "Has she... has she been acting kind of odd, recently?" 

I shrugged. "I don't know. What's the problem?" 

She bit her lip. "She's... been avoiding me. I want to talk to her but... whenever I try to... she always has something else to do. Since you're... with her so much... I was wondering if she... um... told you anything..." 

"She's been acting kind of distracted lately. But I don't know what could be bothering her," I lied. 

The little Pixie choked back a sob, then put a hand over her face until she regained control of herself. She stared at me for a moment, idly rubbing her shoulder with one hand. Then she took a deep breath. 

"You know Gene... our stable hand..." 

"I've met him." 

"He... um... he and I have been... um... doing something humans and monsters shouldn't be doing together." She blushed, looking away from me. "I know it's pretty common knowledge around the ranch." 

"I may have heard about it," I said gently. 

She still couldn't look at me. "About a week ago... he came to my stall. He was... different, somehow. Angry. He was... rough." She looked at the ground. "He did what he came to do, and then left." 

"I didn't think anything of it, at the time. But then the next morning, Sandy was missing. She was gone for most of the next day. Then when she came back, she said she'd been in the Lab. She'd come down with something, and gone to the Lab." 

"The next day, though, when I was talking to her, I noticed a bruise under her eye. It was just barely visible, like it was almost healed, but I saw it. And I think Sandy knows I saw it, because she made some excuse and walked off..." 

There was a long, long silence. "Do you think that... Gene tried something, and Sandy fought him off?" I finally asked. 

She looked up at me. "I'm not a fool, Steppenwolf. I know I'm not the first. I'm not even the only one, right now." She frowned. "But I don't care about that. As long as he..." she sighed. "I love him, I guess, and I don't care what he does to me..." 

"But to think that he would do something to Sandy!" She was starting to cry again. "I love her, I really do, and I don't want to see her get hurt!" 

She looked at the ground again. After a moment, I stepped closer to her. "You need to talk to Sandy about this. She needs to know how you feel. If you're right about this, she's probably avoiding you because she doesn't want to hurt you. She doesn't want to... endanger your relationship with Gene." 

"I didn't think about that..." Molly put a hand to her mouth, thoughtfully. "I thought she was mad at me, because I let Gene..." 

I nudged her. "Don't think that. You're Sandy's friend, and you mean a lot to her. You can't blame yourself for what Gene does." 

"When Sandy comes back, just talk to her. Chase her down if you have to. Just tell her what you told me. I'm sure it'll make you both feel better..." 

She sniffled, and wiped her eyes. "Thank you, Steppenwolf". She gave me a quick hug, and then ran off towards her stable. 

* * * * *

Sandy returned a few days later, and ran to greet me as I waited for her at the gate. She wrapped her arms around me. "It's good to see you, Steppenwolf!" 

"It's good to see you, too." 

Swiftwind came up behind her, Lenny bringing up the rear. "She did well. Took second place." 

Frank then joined us. "All right. There's time for reunions later. Right now I want you all in the Lab where I can check up on you. Sandy, you're first..." 

Sandy frowned. "Ew. More smelly salves..." 

"You need those smelly salves," Frank said. He ran a finger down a cut on her cheek. "Unless you want a scar on that pretty face." 

Sandy started to protest again, but then her green eyes widened as she realized what Frank had said to her. He winked, and she turned a vivid pink around the cheeks. 

"Now, are you going to come along and not complain any more about all my hard work...?" Frank smiled, teasing. 

Sandy blushed even deeper, and took his hand. She walked on with him towards the Lab, without another word. 

Swiftwind chuckled. "I'll bet she doesn't complain about the 'smelly salves' again..." 

"Yeah, Frank knows how to motivate people," I agreed. "But he likes Sandy, and she likes him too." 

"Lenny like Frank too!" The big Baku jumped up and down happily. 

"I wish there were more on this ranch like him." Swiftwind looked momentarily serious, but then he grinned again. "We'd better get to the Lab ourselves, so he doesn't have to come looking for us." 

He and Lenny started off for the Lab, and I followed along beside them. "So Sandy did well, then?" 

Swiftwind's expression turned serious again. "Well enough... but she could have done better." He glanced at me. "Her heart's not in it. She was pulling her punches, not using her full power. I think she's... I think she's afraid, of what she did to Venom." 

I nodded. "I've explained to her that it wasn't her fault, and I think she understands that, but emotionally, she's still afraid. I can see it when she's sparring with me. She's too hesitant, too cautious." 

The green scaled Tiger stared off into the distance, thinking. "There was one really weird thing that happened, too. It was after the tournament. Sandy's third opponent was a Henger, an Omega. It was the first Henger she'd ever met..." 

"That's right, there aren't any Hengers on this ranch. I guess the last one was Combined to create Sandy." 

"Actually, there were two Hengers here, before Sandy was created," Swiftwind said. "I guess the first one didn't take, because it took both of them to create her. They had already gone though all of the other Hengers, to create the Pixie/Hengers that came before her." 

"Did you know any of those Pixies?" 

"The second one I got to know, a little..." His expression turned pained. "It was awful... what happened to her..." 

There was a moment of silence. "I guess we know now more about what happened to her. We all thought she ripped herself apart. But it must have been that... transformation thing. All alone... without anyone around to help her..." 

He shook his head, violently. "Anyway, after the tournament, the Henger came by to congratulate Sandy." He looked up at me. "She beat him, but it was a close one. She did well, in that one. The Henger apparently thought so, too." 

"But when he walked up, Sandy freaked out. He bleeped at her, you know, in that way Hengers do, and she suddenly turned on him and started yelling at him. She said something about 'don't call me that!' Then the Henger apologized, and she seemed to calm down." 

"What did he call her?" 

"That's the weird part. I don't know, he just bleeped at her. I guess that's the Henger way of talking, and she understood what he was saying. She said," he paused, remembering, "She said, 'Where did you hear that name?' And then she insisted he never use it again." 

"But then he apologized?" 

Swiftwind nodded. "They bleeped at each other for a few minutes. And THAT was REALLY weird, let me tell you. She just stood there, with that gem in the middle of her chest flashing this weird green light, making bleeping noises. Then, a few seconds later, he said, 'I see. You have had to endure a great deal.' Like she'd told him her whole life story, or something." 

"Probably she did," I thought about it for a moment. "It's good that she got a chance to talk about it. He could probably give her a better perspective on things than we could..." 

"Who could give a better perspective on things that we could?" Sandy asked, walking out of the Lab. 

Swiftwind jumped. "I was going to talk to you about it anyway, Sandy," I said. "Right now I think Swiftwind's next, since you're through." 

"That's right," Frank said, also appearing at the door. "Come on, and Lenny, you stick around until I call for you." 

"Okay, Lenny stay right here!" 

Sandy scratched the big canine behind the ear, and then walked with me as I headed off away from the lab. I waited until I was out of earshot of the Baku before I spoke. 

"I hear you met a Henger at the tournament." 

She nodded. "It was interesting... I learned some things... about how my other half works." 

"Swiftwind said you got mad about something. He couldn't understand what was being said, but he felt sure the Henger had said something you didn't like." 

Sandy blushed. "He called me by my identifier. You know, SD-7784. I kinda lost it, until I realized that he had said it in Henger speak, and no one else heard it." 

"How did he know it?" 

"I broadcast it to him, right before the battle. An automatic action, I didn't even know I was doing it." She stared at the sky for a moment. 

"But he apologized, right?" 

"Yeah... once he realized that I was embarassed by that name, he apologized. 'I was only greeting you in the Henger fashion,' he said, 'as a sign of respect. I did not expect an emotional reaction.'" 

"'An emotional reaction...'" Her smile was bitter. "Even to Hengers I'm a freak..." 

"You're not a freak," I said. "And I hate it when you say that." 

"I know, 'Teppenwolf. I'm sorry." She stroked my mane. "He said the same thing. 'Your construction is superior, the best of two very successful designs. Do not let the difficulty you have had fitting in with your peers convince you that you have nothing to contribute.'" 

"Heh." I smiled. "I couldn't have said it better myself." 

She managed a laugh, too. "He did sound a lot like you." 

"So you talked?" 

She nodded. "You know, Omegas are half organic, too. Half Zuum. So he understood, for the most part. He was quite shocked at how my Henger half malfunctioned and tried to destroy my Pixie half. That's what he said it was, a malfunction, and he was sure it could be prevented." 

"That's what Frank thinks..." 

"I know..." She was very quiet. "I'm just not ready yet." 

"I understand, Sandy." 

She wiped her eyes. "He was actually quite impressed by me. My attacks were precise and accurate, he said, but I used some, as he called it, 'unorthodox strategies.' I was actually just making it up as I went along, he had backed me into a corner and I was just doing the first thing that came to my mind. But that took imagination and instinct, he said, which as a Henger he didn't have." 

I said nothing. "Anyway, he thanked me for an interesting fight, and went on his way. I guess... I guess I learned something. I never thought about... my place in Henger society. But I guess I have a place there." 

"I'm glad." 

"Well... whaddya say we go do some training before dinner!" She took off running towards the training grounds, unfurling her wings to take to the air, before turning back to look at me. "I wanna work off some energy!" 

* * * * *

Several days passed. I kept a close eye on Sandy, but Gene seemed to be leaving her alone, now. She and Molly seemed to have gotten the chance to talk, because I saw them together more often, chatting or hanging out in the field before dinner. 

It was one of those periods before dinner when I was walking past the Lab, and I happened to hear Gene's voice coming from inside. I edged up to the door and listened in. 

"I don't know what you're talking about," Gene was saying. "There are rules against trainers fraternizing with monsters. If IMa found evidence of such a thing, they'd pull our license." 

"That's one reason I'm telling you to be more careful," Frank's voice answered. "If Curtis gets his license pulled because of you..." 

"Look, if you have proof of these accusations..." 

"Drop the act, Gene! I've been documenting the Pixie cases for five years now! If I WANTED to, I'd have more than enough evidence to go to Curtis." 

"Then why don't you?" 

"Because anyone who replaced you might be worse. Because you aren't seriously hurting them, at least not physically. Because Curtis might already know about this, but allows it because it makes the Pixies more dependent on you..." 

"But mainly because I WANT IT STOPPED!" 

"I'm willing to look the other way about Molly as long as its consensual," Frank continued. "But if you touch any of the other Pixies again -- especially Sandy -- I'm going to Curtis with what I've got. Am I clear?" 

"Perfectly," Gene said, quietly. 

I backed away from the door and walked back towards the field. As I headed towards the other monsters, I saw Inferno, flanked by a couple of other Dragons, coming from their stable. Out of the crowd, a Stinger, a Naga/Zuum, leaped at Inferno, his body spinning in a Tail Attack. Inferno didn't see the Naga coming, but one of his henchmen did, and he pulled Inferno out of the way. 

The Stinger recovered quickly, turning as he hit the ground to slash at the Dragon that had saved Inferno. He ripped a gaping wound across the Dragon's chest, and it roared. As the two combatants began to circle each other, the other Dragon led Inferno out of range. 

"He missed his target," Swiftwind commented, coming up behind me. 

I nodded. "He was after Inferno, but that other Dragon pulled him out of the way." 

"Flamestrike," Swiftwind said. "He's no match for Slasher. But he should be able to hold him off until the guards arrive." 

"What's the Naga got against Inferno, anyway?" 

"Probably nothing. Gene put him up to it. He runs the Naga stables, you know..." 

"As well as the Pixies?" 

Swiftwind nodded. "Brom runs the Dragon and Zuum stables. And Inferno is the biggest money maker we have here... or he was until you came along." He grinned at me. 

"Now that Sandy's starting to get close to A class, though, Gene sees a chance to take over as lead trainer. If he can injure Inferno before his next tournament he won't do too well." 

"So this is just a power struggle," I commented. I watched the Dragon and the Naga battle it out. Flamestrike truly was overmatched, he now had gashes across his arms and face to match the one on his chest, and one of his wings was shredded. But the Stinger was looking a little winded, too. 

As I watched, a group of humans came running, armed with crossbows. They fired at the two monsters, half a dozen arrows into the Naga, and even more into the Dragon. Their tips carried a powerful tranquilizer, and the monsters quickly collapsed, unconscious. The Naga was gathered up and taken back to his stable, while the second Dragon arrived to help carry his friend. 

"Too bad..." Swiftwind shook his head. "Inferno needs to be taken down a peg or two." 

"That Stinger couldn't have done it," I said. When Swiftwind glanced at me, startled, I added. "I've seen Inferno fight, and I saw those two fight. That Slasher just isn't up to his level. He might have gotten in a lucky hit, but that's about it." 

"A lucky hit's all he needs," Swiftwind said. "Just enough to make Inferno turn in a poor performance next month." 

"I wonder if I should be concerned." 

"Probably not. Even though Brom was put in charge of our stables, you've turned out to be more of an embarrassment to him that a help. Gene is actually looking to get our stable, from what I hear. It would be a nice change." 

"I doubt Gene would pay much more attention to us than Brom does," I said. 

Swiftwind laughed. "No, I don't think he would. Not unless we had breasts." He laughed even harder, then noticed my sour expression. 

"Sorry. I forgot about Sandy." His eyes narrowed as a thought occurred to him. "Do you think that..." 

"She's safe from him." I growled, my voice low. "He has no interest in her." 

Swiftwind heard the fury in my voice but said nothing. "That's good. I guess Sandy isn't his type. He likes the full figured ones better." 

"That's pretty much it..." I thought for a moment. "Do you think he might force Sandy into a confrontation with Inferno?" 

"He might, when she gets better. If she becomes his star monster I'd say a confrontation is inevitable." 

"Then I guess *I'D* better talk to him about that..." I muttered. 

"What?" 

"Nothing. Let's head back to the stable. It's getting to be time for dinner." 


	12. Rage

  
"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 12  


  


I continued to train for the A class tournament that was coming up. Since I had come to Curtis's ranch, I could feel that I was growing stronger. Brom had basically left me to myself to train, which was good for me. Brom probably hoped that I wouldn't be able to train myself, and would wind up being beaten. But I remembered every lesson my old Master had taught me, and I knew how to build up my strengths and compensate for my weaknesses. 

Despite that, though, even though I was able to take A class easily now, I was finding it harder and harder to push myself any further. I wasn't getting old, I was still strong, and I could feel that I had many years left to me. But I wasn't in my prime any more. Training wasn't as easy as it used to be, and I found myself having to spend more time maintaining my strength, instead of developing it. 

The intensity of my sessions, training for the tournament, left me exhausted at the end of each day. I was careful not to overwork myself, and I knew that Frank would let me know if I was trying too hard. But I wasn't a young Tiger any more. I began to realize, as Sandy had said, that there would come a time when I wouldn't be there for her any more. 

I was lying in my stall, thinking about the future, when I heard a thump against the wall. I listened for a moment, to see if the sound would come again. But it didn't. There was only silence. I leaped out of my stall and then edged over to the door. Nudging it open, I slipped outside. 

There was only the sliver of a moon, but my eyes were already adjusted to the dark. So as I searched around the outside of the stable, I quickly found what had crashed into my stall. It was Sandy's Rocket Fist, lying dead in the grass. 

From the direction it was pointing, it had obviously come from Sandy's stable. I ran in that direction, taking only moments to reach the building where she slept. I sniffed the air, but she was not inside. Her scent was there, though, a scent of sweat and fear. And I smelled Zuums as well. 

The scent became strong at a spot where scuffmarks could be seen in the soft earth. The Zuums' footprints led away from the spot, but Sandy's did not, so she must have taken to the air to escape her pursuers. I looked off in the direction they were headed. Sandy was heading away from the buildings, towards the forest. 

I knew that Sandy would not want to give away our secret place, no matter how scared she was. But she was heading towards the upper section of the ranch, where the river cut through the forest, on its way to our lake. Apparently, she was hoping to lose the Zuums on the other side of the river. 

I raced across the field towards the trees of the forest. I didn't slow my pace, as I darted through the trees, winding my way between and around them. I tested the air as I ran, hoping to pick up Sandy or the Zuums' scent, or hear them over the crunching of the leaves and twigs under my feet. 

I quickly made it to the stream. I leaped over it easily, jumping from one bank to the other in a single bound. I doubted the Zuums had much more trouble with it, but hopefully it had slowed them down a little. I paused to check for their scent, but they had washed it off in the water. I wouldn't be able to find them that way. 

The night grew quiet, except for the gurgle of the stream, and the chirping of the insects. I concentrated, straining to pick up the tiniest sound. Like all Tigers, my ears had been modified into bony horns, for use in combat. But unlike other Tigers, they were covered in fur, and cupped on the inside, to help pick up the sound. So my hearing was even sharper than that of a purebred Tiger. 

Sure enough, I heard the rustle of leaves, and the cracking of the underbrush off to my right. I took off in that direction, while up ahead of me there was a cry of fear. It was Sandy. The rustling grew loud, even louder than my own footfalls, as I raced after them, the sound of many, clawed feet, shoving through the trees. Sandy cried out again, and there was a loud thump, and the sound of someone hitting the ground. 

There was a flash of light ahead, Lightning, and a crash of energy. The Zuums called out in alarm, and then I heard a roar of sound, Sandy's Rocket Fist going off. I could hear the Zumm's yelling, for a moment, and then everything went silent. Sandy screamed, in terror. The Zuums moved in, and Sandy began to cry out again, in pain. 

I raced onward, towards the sound of Sandy's screams. She was crying out for help, but gasped as the wind was knocked out of her. I had only a few more yards to go, and I could feel the rage building up in me. All I could think was that I wasn't moving fast enough, and that the Zuums would pay if I was too late. 

I burst from the trees to where they stood, in a circle around Sandy. Crimson was standing at the head of them, with two of his Zuums holding Sandy's arms and legs. The others were kicking her with their clawed feet, making her grunt in pain. They looked up at me as I appeared, though, a couple of them turning away from Sandy to face me. 

Sandy lay on the ground, her face bruised and cut, her green eyes closed. She was grimacing, her lip bleeding where she had bit it against the pain. And her side was bleeding, too, a deep gash cut into the black Henger-flesh, just under her ribs. More cuts covered her forearms and legs, her Henger armor protecting her from the worst of it. 

But she had no hands. 

She was pinned down, helpless, her arms ending in nothing but useless stumps. One of the Zuums had her fist, and was holding onto it, preventing it from returning to her. They were holding her arms, up over her head, so she could not fight back. She looked so vulnerable, so fragile, so... violated. 

Something snapped. A red haze came over my eyes, and hatred forced away everything else. I leapt at Crimson, snarling like a wild animal. I had no intention of just hurting Crimson. I was going to KILL him. I didn't want to punish him, to beat him like he had beaten Sandy, I wanted to tear his throat out, and then do the same to the others. 

Crimson managed to hold me off for a few seconds, but I was far too strong for him. I sank my fangs into his neck, and he gave out a choked, bugling noise. His Zuums tried to pull me off him, but I worked my teeth down into his spine. All I had now to do was twist. 

"STEPPENWOLF! STOP IT!" 

I felt Sandy's arms around me, her tears in my fur as she hugged me. "Don't do it! Please! You can't!" Her voice was the only thing holding me back, the only thing that was keeping me from snapping Crimson's neck. But I couldn't let go. I was frozen, unable to move. "Don't do it," she begged, sobbing. "Not for me. Let him go." 

"Don't become a monster killer..." She whispered, in my ear. "Like me..." 

Slowly, I released the Zuum. He leaped away from me, shook his head, and then he and his friends disappeared into the trees. I suddenly realized that I was trembling. 

"Come on..." Sandy said. "Come on, let's go pick up my other hand. Let's go home." 

* * * * *

I didn't see Crimson and the other Zuums the next day, but I assumed that they were avoiding me. Sandy went to see Frank about the cuts the Zuums had given her, and learned from him that Crimson had come in to be treated for the bite mark, as well. Crimson had said nothing about what had happened, and Sandy didn't say anything to Frank either. But she could tell that he knew what had happened. 

I spent most of the day as far away from the other monsters as I could get. It wasn't that I didn't feel justified in losing it like that. And Sandy had stopped me from going too far. But I had seen a side of myself that I didn't like, and I needed time to myself to think about it. 

There weren't many places on the Ranch that a monster could go to be alone. I didn't want to go back into the forest. So I found a spot behind one of the stables, near the fence that marked the border between this ranch and the land beyond. There was a tree growing there, and I settled down there in the shade, under it. 

It was just after lunchtime, and most of the monsters were in the field training. Thus, I was surprised to see a Pixie dart out from between the stables. She was some distance from me, but I could see her clearly enough. I recognized her instantly from her long, curly hair; it was Molly, Sandy's friend. She ran around to the shelter of the back wall of the stable, and peered back down the alley between it and the next building. 

Crimson appeared, from the alley on the other side of the building. She spotted him, and darted away, back winging. As he moved forward, she rose up into the air. 

"Come down here," he said, "Or I'll Fireball you." 

"I'll go over the fence!" She warned him. 

The red Zuum laughed. "You do and I'll go after you. In fact, I think I'll claim you tried to run away anyway. But I'll go easier on you if you cooperate..." 

She landed on the fence, crouching, with her hands helping her to grip the railing. She flapped her wings to keep her balance. "Just leave me alone. Find someone else, please." 

"I told you to get down from there." He leaped up onto the fence himself, and backhanded her back to the ground. She fell sprawled in the grass, but scrambled to her feet. Crimson jumped down next to her. 

Molly put up her arms to shield her face. Crimson wasn't moving to attack her yet, but he stepped closer as she tried to back away. I got to my feet, but before I could move, another figure came around the back of the stable from the alleyway. 

It was Swiftwind. "Inferno sent you after Gene's squeeze, then, did he?" the Datonaire asked. 

"Stay out of this, Tiger," Crimson said. "This has got nothing to do with you." 

"No, it's got everything to do with me. It's all got to do with me. For a time, there, I forgot about that, but it seems I'm remembering." 

"What, you think you're that Gray Wolf, now? He can afford to set his own rules. He's stronger than we are, maybe stronger than Inferno. But the rest of us have to do as we're told." 

"I don't believe that. Not any more." 

"Then you're a fool." 

I walked up to the three of them. Swiftwind looked up as I approached, and Crimson turned around and spotted me. 

"Great." The Zuum muttered. 

"Leave her alone, Crimson. She's a friend of Sandy's. That means she's a friend of mine." 

"Don't Steppenwolf." Molly stood there, with her arms around herself. "It's easier if I just go along with it." 

Crimson looked at her. "You see, Gray Wolf. You can't change anything. Just you and the Datonaire walk away." 

"I can't do that." I glanced at Swiftwind. "What's this all about? The Naga that attacked Inferno the other day?" 

"Of course," the Zuum said. "They hurt one of ours, we hurt one of theirs. That's the way it is." 

"But Molly? She's no fighter." 

Crimson shook his head. "It wasn't my idea. But Gene likes the little slut. We put her in the infirmary for a few days, and he can't get off on her. Maybe he'll even go after one of the others. Maybe even Sandy." 

Molly blushed, but she said nothing. 

"I don't think Inferno cares that Molly is Sandy's friend. In fact, that may be part of his problem." His golden eyes locked on me, a stare of challenge. "Whether you like it or not, Gray Wolf, you're part of this ranch. If you keep interfering, you're just going to make more enemies." 

I looked at Molly, then at Swiftwind. Then I met the red Zuum's eyes again. "Then so be it. You want me to play your game... then I'll play it. Molly, Sandy, Swiftwind, Lenny... they are all under my protection." 

"Steppenwolf, no..." Swiftwind began, but I cut him off. 

"You tell Inferno that whatever he and Brom want to do with Gene is none of my business. But my friends are off limits. Or he answers to me." 

The Zuum stared at me a moment, but then he took a deep breath. As he was about to speak, though, a shadow fell over the group of us. Another monster stepped from the cover of the stables, and out into the open. It was Inferno. 

Swiftwind and Molly stepped back, but I turned to look up at the Dragon. He was smiling. "So... I was wondering how long it would take you to come to this." 

"Don't push me, Dragon," I growled. "You know what I'm capable of. And all you have to do is leave me alone. I don't want to have anything to do with your power struggle." 

"Crimson. Teach this upstart a lesson." 

The Salamander swallowed. "No, sir." 

Inferno raised an eye ridge. "No? Are you a coward, now?" 

"I am afraid of no monster," Crimson said. "But Steppenwolf spared my life. I will not fight him." 

Now it was my turn to look at Crimson in surprise. "You're a coward," Inferno repeated. "You let him beat you, in the woods, and now you're scared..." 

Crimson shook his head. "He could kill me in an instant. But I don't care. I would die, for honor." 

"But there is no honor in this. It is the Grey Wolf who has honor. I will not fight him." 

Inferno stared at him for a moment. Then he smiled again, that menacing, toothy smile. "Swiftwind." The Datonaire looked up at him. "Who runs this ranch?" 

"You do," Swiftwind said. "But you don't run me." 

The Dragon laughed, loudly. "You have done the impossible, Gray Wolf. You've broken my hold on these monsters. And you say that I should just 'leave you alone'." 

"You are a threat to me." He smiled. "You know it, and I know it." 

"You said that Brom was the one running this place," I said. "You said that he was telling you what to do." 

"And you believed that?" He laughed again. "We monsters run this place." 

He leaned in close to me, clenching a clawed fist in my face. "Do you really think those feeble humans can control us, with their whips, and their chains? We make the money that pays for this place, WE do the work that builds it up, WE enforce the discipline that keeps everyone in their place." 

"The humans are fools. They're too busy with their petty squabbles --" he glanced at Molly, "or f***ing the Pixies -- to run this ranch. We let them think they're in charge. But we monsters know better." 

His lips curled into a snarl. "But you... you make monsters think they can 'get along' with humans. That they can be 'free'. That they can be 'good'." His voice became mocking, condescending. "That they can be WEAK. You don't fit in here. You are a threat. And threats are to be eliminated." 

I stared at him for a moment. Then I looked back at Swiftwind. "Get Molly out of here. Crimson, you go, too. Keep everyone else away. I don't want this turning into a riot." 

"I'll take care of it," Swiftwind said, backing away. He, Molly, and Crimson disappeared around the corner of the stable. 

"All right, Dragon," I said. "You want me... come get me." 


	13. Rebellion

  
"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 13  


  


Inferno came at me with a roar. I dodged around him, and ran up his back, looking to grab hold of the back of his neck. He swung around, however, and caught me with his arm, throwing me down to the grass. I rolled back to my feet. 

The Dragon spread his wings, whipping the air around us into a whirlwind. He could have taken to the air, but he didn't. He wanted to play with me first. In the Arena we had been evenly matched, but out here in the open, he had all of the advantages. He could wait me out. All I had to do was make one mistake, miss one of his attacks, and it was all over. I had to take him out as quickly as I could. It was my only chance. 

I Roared, countering his blast of wind with a blast of my own. The whirlwind became a cyclone, howling as it whipped up the grass and leaves around us. For a moment, the cloud of leaves and dust cut off my view of him. I darted forward, through the raging wind, and leaped towards the Dragon's throat. 

He saw me coming and staggered back, but I blasted him with Lightning, the blue energy enveloping his neck and shoulders. He swatted at me with a claw, but I ducked under it, and slammed my horns into his ribs. He roared in pain, as I pierced his scaled hide, but before I could shock him again, he recovered. He reached out for me, and I ducked behind him to avoid his grasp. 

Inferno tried to turn, to keep me in front of him, but I leaped up onto his back. I sank my fangs into the shoulder of his wing, ripping at the membrane with my claws. He screamed again, this time more of a screech than a roar, and began to beat his wings. I was thrown off, and barely dodged a strike by his tail. 

The Dragon balled his hand into a fist, and the red lightning began to gather around his arm and shoulder again. I had never seen a Dragon from my continent use the attack, but I remembered Inferno's use of it in our last battle. I began to concentrate my own energy, gathering it between my horns, but then holding it. The sparks began to dance along my fur, making it stand on end. 

He swung at me, and I leaped aside. Even so, the force of his blow threw me into the fence, the energy field around him so powerful that it had hit me indirectly. I turned in midair, bouncing off the fence to strike him in the head. I caught him perfectly, right under the chin, and he was thrown backwards. I turned a back flip and delivered the full force of my lightning into his chest, through my claws. 

Inferno was on his back, and I leaped at him, but he again swatted me aside. I crashed into one of the stables, shattering the wall. By the time I could shake the debris off, Inferno was lumbering along behind the row of buildings, his wings fully extended. I raced after him, but it was too late. With a massive down sweep of his wings, the Dragon rose into the air. 

He wheeled about, his massive bulk turning with frightening speed, and then he swooped down on me. In the air, a Dragon was a creature of remarkable agility, its size and power matched by unbelievable speed, and grace, for something so huge. I ducked into the cover between the two stables, avoiding Inferno's claws by only inches. I could hear his laughter, as he passed. He knew that I wouldn't last long, on the ground. But I had no intention of staying on the ground. 

As Inferno circled for another pass, I leaped on top of the stable. I was able to clear the side of the building easily, landing effortlessly on the roof. I gathered another charge as Inferno started towards me. Now I had the advantage, as Inferno wouldn't dare damage one of Curtis's buildings. 

Or so I thought. As the Dragon neared, he opened his mouth, and roared forth a blast of flame. I only barely reacted in time, leaping to one side, the fire coming so close that I could feel it singe my fur. I ran to one side, and then leaped onto another stable. The one I had left had caught fire, the roof burning. 

"Inferno!" I yelled. "Are you crazy?!" 

"If it's what it takes to get rid of you," Inferno said, "I will burn this whole ranch down!" 

For a moment, I considered trying to put the fire out. But Inferno was coming around for another pass, and surely he would be looking for such an opening. At least no monsters were in the stables at this time. My jaw clenched, I turned to face the Dragon, ready for his next attack. 

As he came at me, I Roared, and Inferno's own flame was whipped back in his face. He swung his head aside, and the flame blast lit the stable next to me on fire. Inferno shook his head as his attack ended, swiping at his charred face with his hand. Although they could withstand fire pretty well, with their thick hides, Dragons were no more immune to it than any monster. So hopefully he would think twice before trying that again. 

But as I prepared for the next attack, some of the ranch hands arrived on the scene. Several of them opened fire, immediately, with their crossbows. I dodged the tranquilizer darts easily, leaping back and forth on the roof, but I couldn't dodge their attack and Inferno's too. I backed up towards the center of the roof, where the humans couldn't see me. 

But they had cut off my escape route. They were waiting to shoot at me if I jumped to another roof. As Inferno came at me, I steeled myself. I would have to jump over the Dragon, or onto him, to escape his attack. But as he neared, one of the ranchers shot Inferno with an arrow. 

"HOW DARE YOU!!!" The dragon roared, indignantly. He breathed a gout of flame on the humans, and they scattered. The handler who had fired ran up to Brom, who was approaching. 

"What do you think you're doing?!" Brom yelled. He seemed as indignant as Inferno. 

"They... they are destroying the ranch!" The handler said. He sounded a little frightened, whether of Brom or of Inferno I could not be sure. 

"Then shoot the Grey Wolf!" Brom answered, pointing at me. 

"We can't hit him! He dodges!" 

I chuckled. Inferno was coming around for another pass, though, and I had no time to waste on the humans and their power struggles. As the Dragon slashed at me, I leaped onto his arm. I flipped myself up onto his back, and then sank my teeth into his spine. The scales were thick here, though, and Inferno had spikes that prevented me from getting too good a grip. 

I was able to hold on long enough, however, to dig in my claws, and deliver a full charge of Lightning directly into his shoulders. His muscles jerked, and the Dragon tumbled in midair, momentarily losing control of his wings. Then he righted himself, and shook me off. I plummeted to the ground, but landed on my feet in front of the stables. 

I had landed right in the middle of the handlers. A hail of crossbow bolts came at me, but before I could even try to duck or run, a pair of arms wrapped around my middle. Suddenly, I was being pulled sideways, and up. Before I could realize that it was Sandy who had grabbed me, she had swooped up to the roof of a stable, and set us down there. 

"Sandy! You have to get out of here!" 

She shook her head. "This is my fight, as much as yours." 

"No! Inferno is too strong! He'll kill you!" 

"You can't fly," she said. "I can. There's no time to argue." Inferno was swooping down on us. Sandy extended her wings, and leaped into the air. 

A shower of crossbow bolts came at her, as she rose to meet Inferno. I Roared, the blast throwing the bolts off and to the side. "Fire at her again," I yelled to the handlers, "and the next Roar will be at you." 

"This is your fault, Grey Wolf!" Brom answered. "Anything that happens to this stable will be your doing!" 

"Don't threaten me, human!" I snarled, lightning flickering in front of my eyes. "I couldn't care less about Curtis or his rules!" 

Brom, apparently, thought that I was charging up my Lightning to attack. His eyes grew wide, and he backed away from me, his arms up to protect his head. "Your argument is with Inferno, Gray Wolf, not me!" I could hear the terror in his voice. "I'm just trying to protect the ranch!" 

I stared at him a moment. "You are a coward. No wonder Inferno is able to control you." I turned away from him, more interested in how Sandy was doing. 

Sandy and Inferno wheeled overhead, chasing each other, each trying to get behind the other and attack from the rear. The Dragon was far too skilled to fall for that, though. Sandy was more agile in the air, and flitted this way and that, firing the occasional Ray at Inferno to keep him from getting too close to her. When Inferno managed to slip past her defense and charge at her, Sandy countered with a Flame at point blank range. I had taught her that move. 

Inferno backed away, gliding as he put more distance between them. He swooped and dodged, as Sandy tried to catch him, eventually back winging to a halt, right in front of one of the stables. It was an opening, a huge opening, so obvious that I knew Inferno was doing it on purpose. He was trying to lure Sandy into hitting the stable. 

"Sandy! Watch out!" But it was too late. She fired a blast of Flame from her outstretched hand, and Inferno dove out of the way. The fire swept over the stable, setting it alight. 

I ran to catch up with them, leaping from roof to roof. The distraction had caught Sandy off guard, and Inferno had circled around behind her. She tried to escape him by weaving back and forth in the air, but Inferno stayed with her, breathing his fire at her again and again. She dodged over, around, and under the flames, but Inferno was closing in on her, and she could not dodge him for long. 

Sandy folded her wings, twisting in the air as she changed course, and then swooped downward. Inferno shot past her but turned as well, catching back up to her. The little Pixie circled the buildings, looking for a shelter, and noticed the doors of the Lab standing wide open. She dove towards them, hoping to lose the Dragon's massive bulk in the confines of the Lab. 

"Sandy, no!!!" I yelled. Sandy saw an escape route, but Inferno was right behind her, and gathering a massive blast of file, and I knew what the heat would do to the chemicals of the Lab and Freezer. I leaped from the roof, racing to the doorway, but Sandy shot through the doors, followed by Inferno, and a roar of heat and flame. 

The Lab exploded, flames shooting out of it in all directions. Inferno was knocked backwards, and rolled across the ground in front of the building. For a moment, I feared the worst, but then from a side door, Sandy burst out into the open. She was then overtaken by the blast, and tossed all the way into the wall of a stable, even though it was several feet away. 

I ran into the building. Sandy had smashed through the wall, a stall, the door to the stall, and had finally hit the ground in the middle of the stable. She staggered to her feet, one hand to her head, bleeding oily black blood from a wound in her side. I glanced back at a sound behind me, and noticed Inferno charging into the stable after us. I ran to Sandy's side. 

"Quick! Back out the way you came!" I nudged her as she stumbled to the stall and out through the smashed wall. She stopped a moment, in shock, as she saw the burning wreckage that had been the Lab. It was still standing, barely, but most of the wall that she had been blown through was gone, leaving only the blackened, and still burning supports. 

"Frank..." Sandy muttered. 

"Come on!" I prodded. I grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back towards the back of the building. At that moment, however, Brom appeared from in front of the stable. He drew a bead on Sandy with his crossbow, and the bolt struck her in the arm. Sandy screamed, putting her other hand to the wound, but then her voice faded away, and she collapsed. As I stared at her, stunned, Inferno crashed through the wall. 

The red lightning flickered up and down Inferno's arm as he drew back for the kill. I knew what it felt like to be hit by that attack, and I knew there was no way Sandy could survive it. I threw myself into the path of the blow, and it hit me, smashing me hard into the ground. I could feel bones cracking, and dizziness as the pain swept over me. But somehow, I managed to keep from passing out. 

I turned, leaping straight for the Dragon's throat. My teeth sank into the relatively tender flesh, and Inferno bugled, startled. It was a choked, straining noise. I sank my fangs in deeper, deeper, as the Dragon tried to pull me off of him, his claws ripping into my hide. But he was weakening, fighting for air. 

I dug in even deeper. Inferno couldn't stop me, now. As my fangs closed even tighter, I felt them hit bone. I ground against the vertebrae, letting my teeth slip in between them. 

It was about to do to Crimson, when Sandy stopped me. But then I was angry, mad with bloodlust, unable to control myself. Now, strangely, I was calm. I just jerked my head to one side, and twisted. 

I felt a crack. Inferno went rigid. There was a long second of silence. Then the Dragon fell to the ground with a crash. I released him, and looked back at Sandy. She stirred, blinked her eyes, and opened them. With a quiet, breathy moan, she put her hand on her arm. Grimacing, she pulled the crossbow bolt out. 

"Are you all right?" 

"My... Henger half... is releasing an antitoxin against the tranquilizer. I'll be all right in a minute." 

Sandy looked past me. I turned to see what she was looking at, and noticed Brom, still standing there by the corner of the stable. He dropped his crossbow, and turned and ran. The monsters and the other handlers seemed to be gone, so there was only Sandy and I. 

The fire had spread, and seemed like the whole ranch was on fire. The Lab was still burning, and it exploded again. The other wall of the Lab blew out, the one near the Freezer machinery. 

Sandy's eyes widened as she remembered, and then she stood up. "Frank! Was he in there?" 

"I don't know." I tried to remember where I had seen him last. He usually was in the Lab this time of day. 

"We've got to go see! We've got to get him out!" 

She took off running for the Lab. I quickly followed. 


	14. Growing Up

  
"The Experiment"  
  
Chapter 14  


  


As Sandy and I headed into the Lab, a voice stopped us. "Steppenwolf! Wait!" It was Swiftwind. 

"The handlers are evacuating the ranch," the Datonaire said. "I made sure Molly and Lenny made it out okay." 

"Molly?!" Sandy looked relieved. Of course, she didn't know that it was Inferno threatening Molly that had started all this. 

Swiftwind looked around, to make sure no one was listening. "Crimson and the Zuums are going to make a run for it. They've asked us to come with them. If you want to join us, we'll be waiting in the next town." 

"I've got to make sure Frank is all right. But we'll catch up with you." 

"I understand." The scaled Tiger smiled at me. "You do what you have to do." 

I turned and ran into the Lab, but Sandy stayed behind. I overheard her as she spoke to Swiftwind. "Um... If we don't make it... would you take care of Molly for me?" 

"Of course I will." 

"And tell her... that I really love her... and I... I'm really glad that she was my friend..." 

"You'll make it okay," Swiftwind said, gently. "Then you can tell her yourself." 

"Just in case... Tell her what I said." 

The inside of the Lab was in shambles, most of it on the verge of collapse. Fire and smoke were everywhere, so my sense of smell was useless. I called out to Frank, hoping for a reply, but heard nothing. As I tried to make my way towards the back of the Lab, the flames grew higher, fueled by the broken support beams, and the hay on the floor. The heat was too much, and I was forced to back away. 

Water flowed past my feet. It was tinged with red. I looked to my left, to see the room where the freezing chambers were kept. The windows had been blown out, along with most of the wall, and the freezers were in ruins. The heat had apparently set off the chemicals inside of them, and a couple of them had exploded. 

The monsters were all dead, the sudden thaw too much of a shock even for those who survived the explosion. The water and blood that was running across the floor was coming from the freezers. The unlucky monsters were the ones that had been in the freezers that had exploded. There were parts of them everywhere, and the smell of it was making me sick. And then I saw Frank. 

"Frank!" Sandy, coming up behind me, had seen Frank's arm, pinned underneath one of the chambers. What she couldn't see was that the rest of him was several feet away, where he'd been blown when the chamber exploded. 

"No!" I quickly turned, shoving her out of the room with my shoulder. "You don't want to see this!" 

"We have to help him!" 

"He's gone, Sandy! There's nothing we can do!" 

"No, no!" She tried to force her way past me, her eyes filling with tears. "He's okay! He has to be! We can still save him!" 

I grabbed her by the arm. I couldn't speak, since I was holding her arm in my mouth, but I could pull her out of the room. "Let me go!" She wailed. "Please! I've got to see him!" 

I kept pulling. She tried to keep fighting, but after a moment she broke down, falling to her knees. She sobbed into her hands, kneeling in the water and the gore. 

"I'm sorry, Sandy... He must have been trying to save the monsters in the Freezer. He was killed instantly. There's nothing we could have done." 

She continued to sob, quietly. Then she looked up, folding her hands and putting them over her mouth. She stared off in Frank's direction for a moment, not looking for him, just staring. Then she started to turn away. As got to her feet, she spotted something. 

At first, I thought that she was getting up to leave the lab, so I just watched her. But then I realized that she was staring at something. By the time I realized what was going on, and tried to figure out what it was she was looking at, she had already walked over and knelt by it. She gingerly reached out, and picked it up. 

It was a baby Pixie. In human terms, she looked about five years old, but I knew that she couldn't have been more than a month old. She had dark brown hair, and pale skin, her tiny body bare of fur. Her arms and legs were covered in a tan material that looked like clay. And in the center of her chest was a large green gem. 

I swallowed, as there was a lump in my throat. "He... he..." 

"No. He didn't lie." Sandy looked down at the lifeless body, cradling it in her arms. "He said that he wouldn't create ANOTHER Pixie/Henger. He didn't say anything about the one that already existed." 

I couldn't say anything. "My sister..." She stroked the little Pixie's hair, tenderly. "Created at the same time I was..." 

Sandy looked up at me, tears streaming down her face. "My replacement. In case I... In case I... failed... ready to take my place. To... continue the experiment..." 

She pressed the baby against her chest, wailing in her grief. "WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO US?!!!" 

She shuddered, fighting to catch her breath. Then she stroked the little Pixie's face again. "She's so beautiful... so beautiful... did I really look like this?" 

"You did," I said. My own voice was choked. 

"She doesn't look like a freak at all," she said. 

"I'm sorry," she said, to the little Pixie. "I wish I could have raised you. I wish I could have known you. I have so much... to tell you. But it's too late now..." 

She sniffled. "I'm so sorry. If I hadn't... If I'd gone along with them, if I'd agreed to raise you, you wouldn't have been in that Freezer." 

"You can't blame yourself," I said. "You didn't know. Frank didn't tell you. And he was probably trying to get her out when he..." 

I cut myself off, realizing how Sandy might take it. But it was already too late. "I guess that's my fault, too..." 

"No! You can't say that! Sandy, Frank CHOSE to come in here and try and get the monsters out, just as he would have tried to get YOU out if you were in here. Just as YOU came in here to save HIM! He LOVED you, Sandy, and you know he wouldn't have wanted you to blame yourself for his death!" 

"But..." 

As I was about to answer her, however, I heard a creak above my head. I looked up to find one of the roof supports about to burn in two. "Sandy! Look out!" I leaped forward, grabbing her by the arm, and flinging her out of the way. As I turned to leap away myself, the heavy beam crashed down on top of me, its weight slamming into my back, and shoving me to the floor. 

"STEPPENWOLF!" Sandy ran to me, trying to pull me free. But I was pinned. I couldn't even lift the beam myself. The impact had knocked the wind out of me, and further cracked the ribs that had been damaged by Inferno's punch. I was starting to get dizzy and weak from the pain. 

"I'll go get help!" Sandy said, and she stood to run out of the Lab. As she got to the door, however, Curtis entered. "Mr. Curtis!" she yelled, as she saw him. "Steppenwolf is trapped! Help me get him loose!" 

She ran back to me, and the large man followed. He was looking at the debris and the remains of the Lab equipment scattered around on the ground. As he came up near me, he saw the body of the baby Pixie/Henger, lying in the water. 

"You did this..." he growled, at Sandy. 

Sandy looked away from him. "I know I haven't been very helpful, sir," she said, "but I promise..." 

But Curtis backhanded her across the face. "You BITCH! I gave you life! And this is how you repay me! You've destroyed my ranch, destroyed my lab! You've destroyed EVERYTHING!!!" 

"Please, no!" Sandy fell to her knees in front of him, begging. "I'll do anything you say. I'll never argue with you again, I promise. Just, help me save Steppenwolf! PLEASE!!!" 

The big man turned around, grabbing a chair, which he smashed over Sandy's back. She cried out in terror, shielding her head with her arms. "You miserable, ungrateful FREAK! You dare to tell ME what to do? You should be begging me for your LIFE!" 

"Leave her alone!" I called, but Curtis wasn't listening to me. I strained to pull myself out from under the beam, but it only dug deeper into my back. 

"It wasn't good enough for you, was it?" He struck her as hard as he could with the chair, again and again. One of her wings cracked, and Sandy screamed in pain. "I created you, I gave you food and shelter, but it wasn't good enough for you!" 

"Was it the baby Pixie?" He hit her again. Sandy coughed up blood. "Did you burn down my ranch to destroy her? You had to be the only one, didn't you?" 

"It... was Inferno..." Sandy said, weakly. "I... didn't..." 

"LIAR! I saw you Flame one of the buildings! You selfish bitch! Monster killer! You just had to have your way! You just couldn't keep your mouth shut, and do as you were told!" 

Curtis had long since smashed the chair to splinters and was beating Sandy with its leg. Realizing that he had destroyed his weapon, he threw it aside. Then he reached down and picked up a piece of twisted metal from the wreckage of the Freezers. He raised it over his head, like a spear, intending to impale Sandy with it. 

And then, it was like a scene from my memory had begun playing itself out. Sandy looked up at him, her face twisted in fury, a look I had only seen once before, in the Arena. And her eyes lit up, with that inhuman green light. 

Sandy's hand balled into a fist. There was that flash of green from the back of her hand. She thrust her arm up, into Curtis's stomach, and the Laser Sword erupted from his back. There was the hum of power, the gurgling noise that Curtis made, as his lungs filled with blood. 

... and Sandy's voice, as quiet as death. "You... will... never... torture... anyone... ever... again..." 

She seemed to spit the last word. "MONSTER!" 

The humming sound switched off, and Curtis fell over, off of Sandy's upraised fist. There was a long silence, and then she jumped to her feet, putting both hands over her mouth. "Oh, no! What have I done?!!!" 

"What you had to do." She turned to look back at me. "Sandy, you've got to get out of here! The building could collapse at any time!" 

She ran back to me. "No! I've got to save you!" 

"Forget me. Sandy, you've got to get out, while you still can." 

Sandy wasn't listening. She grabbed onto the roof beam, and pulled up on it. It didn't budge, of course. She strained as hard as she could, but there was no way she was strong enough to move the beam. 

"Sandy, I'm... I'm pretty badly hurt. Inferno smashed a couple of my ribs, and this board kind of finished the job. I... I don't know how much longer I've got." I struggled for breath. "You've got to get out while you still can." 

"NO, NO!!!" Sandy pulled harder. "I can't leave you. I CAN'T LOSE YOU!!!" I heard a screaming, whining noise. It was coming from Sandy's arms. To my astonishment, the roof beam moved. Sandy grimaced in pain, and smoke was starting to come from one of her arms, but she was moving it. 

I scrabbled to get a grip on the floor. "Steppenwolf, hurry!" Sandy hissed. "It hurts! I don't know... if I can take it!" 

"I've got it!" I pulled myself out from under the beam. Sandy dropped it, suddenly, just barely missing my tail. She collapsed to her knees, breathing hard. Her arm was hanging limp by her side, and she held it with her other hand. 

"Come on, let's get out of here!" I said. As I started to leave the Lab, however, I stopped. I picked up the scrap of metal that Curtis had tried to stab Sandy with, and shoved it through the wound she had made with her Laser Sword. 

Sandy and I ran out of the Lab, but once outside, she collapsed on the grass. "Oh, Steppenwolf," she muttered. "What have I done? What have I become?" 

"You did what you had to do," I told her again. I looked up as more of the Lab collapsed. "He'll be buried under that. Even if the fire doesn't destroy his body, that piece of metal will make it look like he was caught in the explosion, like Frank. No one will know." 

"I'll know..." Sandy said. 

"And so will I." I nudged her face. "And we'll get through it together." 

* * * * *

Sandy wandered through the shop, checking the different barrels of fresh foods as she passed. "We should get some Tablets," she commented. 

"Tablets?" 

"I'm not giving up my lifespan just because we aren't on Curtis's ranch any more. We monsters have short enough lives as it is." 

I made a face. "I don't know how you can stand the taste." 

She shrugged. "My Henger half seems to like them. And with a Mango or something for flavor, they aren't too bad." She had stopped at a barrel of Mangos, and stuck a handful of them into the bags I wore across my back. 

"I guess so." 

Sandy grinned at me, then reached down and poked me in the side. "You've been eating too much meat as it is, Steppenwolf. You're getting a gut." 

"I'm a Tiger." I smiled back. "I eat meat." 

"Then we'll get some meat, too." 

We finished our shopping, and went to the counter. Sandy paid for our food. Between the two of us, we were doing pretty well for ourselves. Moving town to town, fighting in Arenas along the way, we had managed to build up a respectable amount of gold. 

"Where is your trainer?" The shopkeeper asked, as he was weighing the Tablets. He was just making small talk, but it was a question we got asked a lot. 

"We don't have a trainer," Sandy answered. 

"Oh. Wild monsters, then." He eyed her warily, but not unkindly. 

"Not really," I said. "We had a trainer, a good one. His name was Blayyde." I looked up at Sandy, and she gave me a sad smile. "But he's dead now." 

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that." 

"We think he may have relatives, on the FIMBA continent. That's where we're going. Or maybe we'll meet up with some of his other monsters going the same way." 

"That's a long trip," the man said. "Good luck to you." 

"Thanks." Sandy took her change. 

"I hope everything turns out all right," the shopkeeper said. "It's always terrible when a trainer leaves his monsters with no one to take care of them." 

"He didn't leave us with no one," Sandy said. She smiled at me, ruffled my mane. "He left us each other." 

  


THE END

  



End file.
